xcellent woman.
Your clothes are well kept, and I read more in needlework than you
think. Also folks cannot neglect their cleanliness and then furbish
themselves up in a day. I see by your complexion that she attends to
you. I hope you are careful not to laugh at her when she makes those
ludicrous speeches?"

But I shifted the talk from Mrs. Trapp.

"What did you mean, just now, by 'we,' Miss Plinlimmon?" I asked.

"Did I say 'we'?"

"You talked about your reverses--'our reverses,' you said. I wish
you would tell me about it: I never heard, before, of anyone
belonging to you."

"'We' means 'my brother and I,'" she said, and said no more until she
had paid the bill and we walked up to the Hoe together. There she
chose a seat overlooking the Sound and close above the amphitheatre
(in those days used as a bull-ring) where Corineus the Trojan had
wrestled, ages before, with the giant Gogmagog and defeated him.

"My brother Arthur--Captain Arthur Plinlimmon of the King's Own--is
the soul of honour. I do not believe a nobler gentleman lives in the
whole wide world: but then we are descended from the great Glendower,
King of Wales (I will show you the pedigree, some day), and have
Tudor blood, too, in our veins. When dear papa died and we
discovered he had been speculating unfortunately in East India
Stock--'buying for a fall' was, I am told, his besetting weakness,
though I could never understand the process--Arthur offered me a home
and maintenance for life. Of course I refused: for the blow reduced
him, too, to bitter poverty, and he was married. And, besides, I
could never bear his wife, who was a woman of fashion and
extravagant. She is dead now, poor thing, so we will not talk of
her: but she could never be made to understand that their
circumstances were altered, and died leaving some debts and one
child, a boy called Archibald, who is now close on twenty years old.
So there is my story, Harry; and a very ordinary one, is it not?"

"Where does Captain Plinlimmon live?" I asked.

"He is quartered in Lancaster just now, with his regiment: and Archie
lives with him. He had hoped to buy the poor boy a commission before
this, but could not do so honourably until all the debts were paid.
'The sins of the fathers--'" She broke off and glanced at me
nervously.

But I was not of an age to suspect why, or to understand my own lot
at all. "I suppose you love this Archibald better than anybody,"
said I wit