of her 'poor lost daughter', who might be still living
somewhere, and wondering who her mother was. Naturally enough, when I
heard that hateful old drunkard talking about a child given to her by
Mr. Farnaby, I put two and two together. Dear me, how strangely you
look! What's wrong with you?"

"I'm only very much interested--that's all. But there's one thing I
don't understand. What had Mr. Goldenheart to do with all this?"

"Didn't I tell you?"

"No."

"Well, then, I tell you now. Mrs. Farnaby is not only a heartless
wretch, who turns a poor girl out of her situation, and refuses to give
her a character--she's a fool besides. That precious exhibition of her
nasty foot was to inform Mr. Goldenheart of something she wanted him to
know. If he happened to meet with a girl, in his walks or his travels,
and if he found that she had the same deformity in the same foot, then
he might know for certain--"

"All right! I understand. But why Mr. Goldenheart?"

"Because she had a dream that Mr. Goldenheart had found the lost girl,
and because she thought there was one chance in a hundred that her dream
might come true! Did you ever hear of such a fool before? From what I
could make out, I believe she actually cried about it. And that same
woman turns me into the street to be ruined, for all she knows or cares.
Mind this! I would have kept her secret--it was no business of mine,
after all--if she had behaved decently to me. As it is, I mean to be
even with her; and what I heard down in the kitchen is more than enough
to help me to it. I'll expose her somehow--I don't quite know how; but
that will come with time. You will keep the secret, dear, I'm sure. We
are soon to have all our secrets in common, when we are man and wife,
ain't we? Why, you're not listening to me! What _is_ the matter with
you?"

Jervy suddenly looked up. His soft insinuating manner had vanished; he
spoke roughly and impatiently.

"I want to know something. Has Farnaby's wife got money of her own?"

Phoebe's mind was still disturbed by the change in her lover. "You speak
as if you were angry with me," she said.

Jervy recovered his insinuating tones, with some difficulty. "My
dear girl, I love you! How can I be angry with you? You've set me
thinking--and it bothers me a little, that's all. Do you happen to know
if Mrs. Farnaby has got money of her own?"

Phoebe answered this time. "I've heard Miss Regina say that Mrs.
Farnaby's father was a rich man