r than when she
transferred to her pocket the twenty pounds which Lettice had paid her,
though that was barely twelve months ago.

Lettice was better pleased to see her this time; but there was a sinking
at her heart as she thought from whom the old lady had come, and
wondered what her coming might mean.

Mrs. Bundlecombe produced from her bag a little roll of paper, and laid
it on the table with trembling hands.

"There, Miss Campion," she said, taking the chair which Lettice had put
for her, "now I feel better already, and I can answer your kind
inquiries. I cannot say that I am very well, but there is nothing you
can do for me, except take the money back that I came and asked you for
a year ago. Don't say anything against it, my dear, for my Alan says it
must be done, and there is no use in trying to turn him. It is the right
method for peace of conscience, as the good Mr. Baxter said, and that
must be my apology, though I am sure you will not think it was nothing
but sinful self-seeking that made me come to you before."

"I don't understand, Mrs. Bundlecombe! I simply paid you a debt, did I
not? If it was right for my father to pay (as he would have done if he
had lived), it was right for me to pay; and as it was right for me to
pay, it was right for you to ask. And it gave me pleasure, as I told you
at the time, so that I object to taking the money back again."

"That is what I said to Alan, but he would not listen to me. 'Miss
Campion was not bound to pay her father's debt,' he said, 'any more than
Mr. Campion, and therefore it was wrong for you to ask either of them.
But to go to a woman,' he said, 'was more than wrong, it was mean; and I
can never look in her face again if you do not take it back and beg her
pardon.' He can be very stern, my dear, when he is not pleased, and just
now I could not disobey him if he was to tell me to go on my knees
through London town."

"How did he know that I had paid you?"

"Well, it was yesterday; we had been in great trouble"--and here Mrs.
Bundlecombe broke down, having been very near doing it from the moment
when she entered the room. Lettice comforted her as well as she could,
and made her drink a glass of wine; and so she gradually recovered her
voice.

"Well, as I was saying, my dear, in the evening, when we were quiet by
ourselves, he said to me, 'Aunt Bessy, I met Miss Campion last night,
and I gather from what she told me that you had seen one another in
Lond