his love and upon his mercy, would beg him to go to Mr Grey and
ask for pardon for her. "I should be very humble to him," she said;
"but he is so good, that I may dare to be humble before him." So
she waited for her father. She waited till twelve, till one, till
two;--but still he did not come. Later than that she did not dare to
wait for him. She feared to trust him on such business returning so
late as that,--after so many cigars; after, perhaps, some superfluous
beakers of club nectar. His temper at such a moment would not be fit
for such work as hers. But if he was late in coming home, who had
sent him away from his home in unhappiness? Between two and three she
went to bed, and on the following morning she left Queen Anne Street
for the Great Western Station before her father was up.

CHAPTER XV

Paramount Crescent

Lady Macleod lived at No. 3, Paramount Crescent, in Cheltenham, where
she occupied a very handsome first-floor drawing-room, with a bedroom
behind it, looking over a stable-yard, and a small room which would
have been the dressing-room had the late Sir Archibald been alive,
but which was at present called the dining-room: and in it Lady
Macleod did dine whenever her larger room was to be used for any
purposes of evening company. The vicinity of the stable-yard was not
regarded by the tenant as among the attractions of the house; but it
had the effect of lowering the rent, and Lady Macleod was a woman who
regarded such matters. Her income, though small, would have sufficed
to enable her to live removed from such discomforts; but she was one
of those women who regard it as a duty to leave something behind
them,--even though it be left to those who do not at all want it;
and Lady Macleod was a woman who wilfully neglected no duty. So
she pinched herself, and inhaled the effluvia of the stables, and
squabbled with the cabmen, in order that she might bequeath a
thousand pounds or two to some Lady Midlothian, who cared, perhaps,
little for her, and would hardly thank her memory for the money.

Had Alice consented to live with her, she would have merged that duty
of leaving money behind her in that other duty of finding a home for
her adopted niece. But Alice had gone away, and therefore the money
was due to Lady Midlothian rather than to her. The saving, however,
was postponed whenever Alice would consent to visit Cheltenham; and a
bedroom was secured for her which did not look out over the stabl