; and Flossy felt vaguely that Cynthia ought
to be at a disadvantage, but that in some strange and miraculous manner
she was not. Indeed it was Cynthia who took the lead and spoke first.

"If you wish to speak to me," she said, "I am here; but I cannot leave
Mr. Lepel for long."

"I have no wish to speak--necessity alone compels me," said Mrs. Vane,
giving the girl a haughty stare from under her half-closed eyelids. "I
am compelled, I fear, to ask you a few questions. I presume that a nurse
is coming?"

"I think not. The doctor said that he need not send one so long as
Jenkins and I were here."

"And pray how long do you mean to remain here?"

"As long as he has need of me."

"You are under a mistake," said Mrs. Vane loftily. "Mr. Lepel did not
send for you, I believe?"

"He called for me in his delirium," answered Cynthia, whose eyes were
beginning to be lighted up as if from an inward fire. "He is quiet only
when I am here."

Flossy laughed derisively.

"A good reason! Is he not quiet now, with the woman Jenkins at his side?
You will perhaps allow that his relatives--his family--have some right
to attend to him during his illness; and I must really say very
plainly--since you compel me to do so--that I should prefer to see him
nursed by a professional nurse, and not by a young girl whose very
presence here is a scandal to all propriety."

Cynthia drew herself up to her full height.

"I think I can scarcely understand you," she said. "I am acting under
the doctor's orders, and am here by his authority. There can be no
scandal in that. When Mr. Lepel is conscious and can spare me, I will
go."

"Spare you! He will be only too glad to spare you!" cried Mrs. Vane. "I
do not know what your connection with him has been--I do not want to
know"--the insinuation conveyed by her tone and manner was felt by
Cynthia to be in itself an insult; "but this I am fully convinced of,
that my poor brother could not possibly have known that you were the
daughter of that wretched criminal, Andrew Westwood--the man who
murdered Sydney Vane! If he had known that, he would never have wished
to see your face again!"

She saw the girl wince, as if she had received a cut with a whip, and
for a moment she triumphed.

The General, who was just inside the room, listening anxiously to the
conversation, now came to her aid. He stepped forward hurriedly, his
face growing crimson, his lower jaw working, his eyes seeming to turn in
hi