e; but not this! Why, Sabina
Meldreth, we are at the mercy of that child's discretion! She has us in
her hands--she can crush us when she pleases! Heavens and earth--and to
think that I did not know!"

"You might have known," said Sabina sullenly. "I've been to the house
more than once. I've written and said that I wanted to see you. I don't
think it's me that's been the fool." But the last sentence was uttered
almost in a whisper.

"No, I have been careless--I have been to blame!" said Flossy, a
feverish spot of color showing itself in her white cheeks. "So she
knows--she knows! That is why she looks at me so strangely; that is why
she avoids me and will hardly speak to me. I understand her now."

"Maybe," said Sabina, "she thought mother was raving, or didn't
understand her aright."

"No, no; she understood--she believes it. But why has she kept silence?
She hates me, and she might have ruined me--she might have secured
Beechfield for herself by this time! What a little idiot she must be!"

Mrs. Vane was thinking aloud rather than addressing Sabina; but that
young woman generally had an answer ready, and was not disposed to be
ignored.

"Miss Vane's fond of her uncle," she said drily, "and did not want
perhaps to vex him. Besides"--her voice dropped suddenly--"they tell me
she's fond of the child."

Flossy did not seem to hear; she was revolving other matters in her
mind.

"Do you think," she said presently; "that Miss Enid has told the Rector?
She has seen a good deal of him lately."

"No, I don't; I should have heard of it before now if she had," replied
Sabina bluntly. "He don't mince matters; and he's got it into his head
that I ought to be reformed, and that I've something on my mind. That's
why I want to get to Whitminster."

"Go farther away than Whitminster," said Mrs. Vane suddenly; "go to
London, and I'll give you the money you ask--two hundred pounds a year."

"Will you? Well, I'm not ill-disposed to go to London. One could live
there very comfortable, I dare say, on two hundred a year. But how am I
to know if you'll pay it? Give me a bit of writing----"

"Not a word--not a line! You need not be afraid. I'll keep my promise if
I have to sell my jewels to do it; and the General does not ask me what
I do with my allowance. By-and-by, Sabina, I may have an income of my
own; and then--then it shall be better for you as well as for me."

Her tone and manner had grown silky and caressing. Miss Mel