verty. But
surely something was due to him! It was not for his pleasure that
this girl,--whom he was forced to call Lady Anna, though he could
never believe her to be so, whom his wife and sister called cousin
Anna, though he still thought that she was not, and could not be,
cousin to anybody,--it was not for anything that he could get, that
he was entertaining her as an honoured guest at his rectory. And now
his nephew was gone, and the girl was left behind. And he was not to
be told whether there was to be a marriage or not! "I cannot tell. I
do not know. I think not." And then he was curtly requested to ask no
more questions. What was he to do with the girl? While the young Earl
and the lawyers were still pondering the question of her legitimacy,
the girl, whether a Lady Anna and a cousin,--or a mere nobody, who
was trying to rob the family,--was to be left on his hands! Why,--oh,
why had he allowed himself to be talked out of his own opinion? Why
had he ever permitted her to be invited to his rectory? Ah, how the
title stuck in his throat as he asked her to take the customary glass
of wine with him at dinner-time that evening!

On reaching London, towards the end of August, Lord Lovel found that
the Solicitor-General was out of town. Sir William had gone down to
Somersetshire with the intention of saying some comforting words to
his constituents. Mr. Flick knew nothing of his movements; but his
clerk was found, and his clerk did not expect him back in London till
October. But, in answer to Lord Lovel's letter, Sir William undertook
to come up for one day. Sir William was a man who quite recognised
the importance of the case he had in hand.

"Engaged to the tailor,--is she?" he said; not, however, with any
look of surprise.

"But, Sir William,--you will not repeat this, even to Mr. Flick, or
to Mr. Hardy. I have promised Lady Anna that it shall not go beyond
you."

"If she sticks to her bargain, it cannot be kept secret very
long;--nor would she wish it. It's just what we might have expected,
you know."

"You wouldn't say so if you knew her."

"H--m. I'm older than you, Lord Lovel. You see, she had nobody else
near her. A girl must cotton to somebody, and who was there? We ought
not to be angry with her."

"But it shocks me so."

"Well, yes. As far as I can learn his father and he have stood by
them very closely;--and did so, too, when there seemed to be but
little hope. But they might be paid for all the