Poor Jinny was the
best of women, but she was open to flattery, and liable to be misled by
designing persons. She was untrue to me, Grey. It is a hard thing to
say of the dead, but she was untrue to me. She fled to Auckland with a
man whom she had known before her marriage. The brig which carried
them foundered, and not a soul was saved."

"This is very painful, O'Brien," said the Professor, with a deprecatory
motion of his hand. "I cannot see, however, how it affects your
relation to my sister."

"I have eased my conscience," said O'Brien, rising from his chair; "I
have told you all that there is to tell. I should not like the story
to reach you through any lips but my own."

"You are right, O'Brien. Your action has been most honourable and
considerate. But you are not to blame in the matter, save that perhaps
you showed a little precipitancy in choosing a life-partner without due
care and inquiry."

O'Brien drew his hand across his eyes.

"Poor girl!" he cried. "God help me, I love her still! But I must go."

"You will lunch with us?"

"No, Professor; I have my packing still to do. I have already bade
Miss Grey adieu. In two months I shall see you again."

"You will probably find me a married man."

"Married!"

"Yes, I have been thinking of it."

"My dear Professor, let me congratulate you with all my heart. I had
no idea. Who is the lady?"

"Mrs. O'James is her name--a widow of the same nationality as yourself.
But to return to matters of importance, I should be very happy to see
the proofs of your paper upon the vermiform appendix. I may be able to
furnish you with material for a footnote or two."

"Your assistance will be invaluable to me," said O'Brien, with
enthusiasm, and the two men parted in the hall. The Professor walked
back into the dining-room, where his sister was already seated at the
luncheon-table.

"I shall be married at the registrar's," he remarked; "I should
strongly recommend you to do the same."

Professor Ainslie Grey was as good as his word. A fortnight's
cessation of his classes gave him an opportunity which was too good to
let pass. Mrs. O'James was an orphan, without relations and almost
without friends in the country. There was no obstacle in the way of a
speedy wedding. They were married, accordingly, in the quietest manner
possible, and went off to Cambridge together, where the Professor and
his charming wife were present at several academic observ