obtained accurate information concerning Enid's
movements and actions, supplied from a source which Enid never even
suspected.

Such knowledge was generally very useful to Flossy, but at present she
was puzzled by certain items of news brought to her by Parker. "What
does this constant meeting with Mr. Evandale mean?" she asked herself.
Then her thoughts went back to the day of Mrs. Meldreth's death--a day
which she never remembered without a shudder. She knew very well that
the poor old woman had bitterly repented of her share in a deed to which
her daughter Sabina and Mrs. Vane had urged her; it had been as much as
Mrs. Vane and Sabina, by their united efforts, could do to make her hold
her tongue. No fear of the General's vengeance, of Sabina's disgrace, of
punishment of any kind, would have ensured her silence very much longer.
The old woman had said again and again that she could not bear--in her
own words--"to see Miss Enid kep' out of her own." She used to come to
Flossy's boudoir and sit there, crying and entreating that she might be
allowed to tell the General the truth. She did not seem to care when she
was reminded that she herself would probably be punished, and that
Sabina and Mrs. Vane had nothing but ruin before them if the truth were
known. She had the fear of death on her soul--the fear that her sin
would bring her eternal misery.

"You are a wickedly selfish woman!" Flossy once said to her, with as
near an approach to passion as her temperament would allow. "You think
of nothing but your own salvation. Our ruin, body and soul, does not
matter to you."

And indeed this was true. The terrors of the law had gotten hold of Mrs.
Meldreth's conscience. The avenging sword, carried by a religion in
which she believed, had pierced her heart. She would have given
everything she had in the world to be able to follow the advice given in
her Prayer-book, to go to a "discreet and learned minister of God's
Word"--Mr. Evandale, for instance--and quiet her conscience by opening
her grief to him. But both Sabina and Mrs. Vane were prepared to go to
almost any length before they would give her the chance of doing this.

Mrs. Vane was of course the leading spirit of the three. Where Sabina
only raved and stormed, Mrs. Vane mocked and persuaded. She argued,
threatened, coaxed, bribed, in turns; she gave Mrs. Meldreth as much
money as she could spare, and promised more for the future; but the poor
woman--at first open t