any attempt at self-justification.

"I ought to have guessed from the start; but it seems I'm not as smart
as I thought. They had me, the whole way through. You were right, you
see, and I was wrong. I should have taken your advice. Guess it will
be a lesson to me!"

"I trust it may prove so, my dear! a dearly-bought, but invaluable
lesson!" quoth Miss Briskett, blandly. So far from being incensed, she
actually purred with satisfaction, for had not the truant returned home
in a humble and tractable spirit, ready to acknowledge and apologise for
her error? Her good humour was such that she bore the shock of hearing
of Guest's role in the drama with comparative composure.

"He seems," she declared, "to have comported himself with considerable
judgment, but, my dear Cornelia, if anything more were needed to
demonstrate the necessity for caution and restraint in the future, it
must surely be the remembrance that you were driven into such intimate
relationship with a man whose acquaintance you had made but a few short
days before! It seems to me that the recollection must be painfully
embarrassing to any nice young girl."

"Yes, 'um!" said Cornelia, meekly. She lowered her eyelids, and her
cheeks flushed to a vivid pink. Such a typical picture did she make of
a modest and abashed young girl, that the spinster's stern face relaxed
into a smile, and she laid her hand affectionately upon the ruddy locks.

"There! there! We will say no more about it--

"`Repentance is to leave
The sins we loved before;
And show that we in earnest grieve
By doing so _no more_!'

"Another time you will be guided by wiser counsels!"

"...Have you missed me, Aunt Soph, while I've been away?"

"Er--the house has seemed very quiet," replied Miss Briskett,
truthfully. "I am sorry that I am obliged to leave you this afternoon,
my dear, but I have promised to attend a committee meeting at four
o'clock. You will be glad to rest after your journey, and to unpack and
get your things put neatly away."

"Has Elma come home?"

"She returned yesterday morning. I saw the dog-cart from the Manor
waiting outside the gate this morning. Mrs Ramsden told me the other
day that Elma's health was completely restored."

Cornelia pondered over these scanty items of news as she sat at her
solitary tea an hour later. Elma was well; Elma had returned home. A
dog-cart from the Manor had been observed waiting outside the gate of
The Holt