better food than he could obtain at the hospital--pointed more and more
visibly to a decided gain of vital strength. His hollow checks were
filling out, and colour was beginning to appear again on the pallor of
his skin. Strange as the conduct of Lord Harry and Mr. Vimpany might
be, there was no possibility, thus far, of connecting it with the
position occupied by the Danish guest. Nobody who had seen his face,
when he was first brought to the cottage, could have looked at him
again, after the lapse of a fortnight, and have failed to discover the
signs which promise recovery of health.

CHAPTER XLVIII

"THE MISTRESS AND THE MAID"

IN the correspondence secretly carried on between the mistress in
London and the maid at Passy, it was Fanny Mere's turn to write next.
She decided on delaying her reply until she had once more given careful
consideration to the first letter received from Lady Harry, announcing
her arrival in England, and a strange discovery that had attended it.

Before leaving Paris, Iris had telegraphed instructions to Mrs. Vimpany
to meet her at the terminus in London. Her first inquiries were for her
father. The answer given, with an appearance of confusion and even of
shame, was that there was no need to feel anxiety on the subject of Mr.
Henley's illness. Relieved on hearing this good news, Iris naturally
expressed some surprise at her father's rapid recovery. She asked if
the doctors had misunderstood his malady when they believed him to be
in danger. To this question Mrs. Vimpany had replied by making an
unexpected confession.

She owned that Mr. Henley's illness had been at no time of any serious
importance. A paragraph in a newspaper had informed her that he was
suffering from nothing worse than an attack of gout. It was a wicked
act to have exaggerated this report, and to have alarmed Lady Harry on
the subject of her father's health. Mrs. Vimpany had but one excuse to
offer. Fanny's letter had filled her with such unendurable doubts and
forebodings that she had taken the one way of inducing Lady Harry to
secure her own safety by at once leaving Passy--the way by a false
alarm. Deceit, so sincerely repented, so resolutely resisted, had tried
its power of temptation again, and had prevailed.

"When I thought of you at the mercy of my vile husband," Mrs. Vimpany
said, "with your husband but too surely gained as an accomplice, my
good resolutions failed me. Is it only in books that a true re