a paper-cutter which he
held in his hand. And after a moment's waiting she spoke again.

'I know what you refer to,' she said. 'It would be nonsense to pretend I
do not. And I can--even--understand how to you it may seem that the
claim you allude to exists. But, if you have talked together about
these--these people, as no doubt you have done, has not Eugenia told you
what I have told her, that on a certain day my father and I shook
ourselves free from the bonds which had become shackles of shame; that
from that time Bernard Harper and all belonging to him ceased to be more
to us than any stranger we might brush against in the street?'

Colonel Mildmay raised his head and looked at her quietly.

'It could not be done; the bonds do exist and must exist,' he said. 'The
great thing is that, however cruelly they may have torn and wounded you
in the past, they may now be to you a cause of happiness and
satisfaction.'

But Lady Myrtle shook her head.

'I will never acknowledge even the possibility of my recognising these
descendants of my former brother as anything to me,' she said. And the
quietness with which she spoke was very impressive. 'I have given them
assistance because I believe them to be worthy people in sore need. I
may even do so again if you tell me their need continues. But that is
all. I should be false to my dead father if I did otherwise.

'Still, the late Lord Elvedon--your father, I mean--looked forward to
his _elder_ son's children being reinstated,' Colonel Mildmay ventured
to say. 'Why then, in the actual circumstances of his _younger_
grandchildren being to the full as worthy and in far greater need, why
treat them so differently?'

Lady Myrtle hesitated, for half a second only, but even that was
something.

'My father could not have contemplated the _possibility_ of Bernard's
descendants being--of their wiping out his disgrace,' she said at last
confusedly.

'Exactly,' Colonel Mildmay replied quickly. 'And it was only natural.
But as he did _not_ contemplate a state of things which has actually
come to pass, how can his directions affect you with regard to these
facts?'

Lady Myrtle again shook her head. She had grown very pale, but otherwise
she was completely self-controlled.

'I cannot argue in that way. I do not even pretend to be logical,' she
said. 'I can only repeat--so it is. So now you understand. If I did not
leave that part of my property which I conscientiously believe to be