's book,' continued the other, 'a very
ill-natured one; it's written by the editor, Mr Fadge. Father and he
have been very unfriendly for a long time. Perhaps Mr Milvain has told
you something about it?'

Dora replied that he had.

'I don't know how it is in other professions,' Marian resumed, 'but I
hope there is less envy, hatred and malice than in this of ours. The
name of literature is often made hateful to me by the things I hear
and read. My father has never been very fortunate, and many things have
happened to make him bitter against the men who succeed; he has often
quarrelled with people who were at first his friends, but never so
seriously with anyone as with Mr Fadge. His feeling of enmity goes so
far that it includes even those who are in any way associated with Mr
Fadge. I am sorry to say'--she looked with painful anxiety from one to
the other of her hearers--'this has turned him against your brother,
and--'

Her voice was checked by agitation.

'We were afraid of this,' said Dora, in a tone of sympathy.

'Jasper feared it might be the case,' added Maud, more coldly, though
with friendliness.

'Why I speak of it at all,' Marian hastened to say, 'is because I am so
afraid it should make a difference between yourselves and me.'

'Oh! don't think that!' Dora exclaimed.

'I am so ashamed,' Marian went on in an uncertain tone, 'but I think
it will be better if I don't ask you to come and see me. It sounds
ridiculous; it is ridiculous and shameful. I couldn't complain if you
refused to have anything more to do with me.'

'Don't let it trouble you,' urged Maud, with perhaps a trifle more of
magnanimity in her voice than was needful. We quite understand. Indeed,
it shan't make any difference to us.'

But Marian had averted her face, and could not meet these assurances
with any show of pleasure. Now that the step was taken she felt that
her behaviour had been very weak. Unreasonable harshness such as her
father's ought to have been met more steadily; she had no right to make
it an excuse for such incivility to her friends. Yet only in some
such way as this could she make known to Jasper Milvain how her father
regarded him, which she felt it necessary to do. Now his sisters would
tell him, and henceforth there would be a clear understanding on both
sides. That state of things was painful to her, but it was better than
ambiguous relations.

'Jasper is very sorry about it,' said Dora, glancing rapidly at