u came that
evening. What passed between you and her you know best. You complained
that she slighted your request to shun all acquaintance with Mr.
Margrave. I was surprised that, whether your wish were reasonable or
not, she could have hesitated to comply with it. I spoke to her about it
after you had gone, and she wept bitterly at thinking she had displeased
you."

"She wept! You amaze me. Yet the next day what a note she returned to
mine!"

"The next day the change in her became very visible to me. She told me,
in an excited manner, that she was convinced she ought not to marry you.
Then came, the following day, the news of your committal. I heard of
it, but dared not break it to her. I went to our friend the mayor, to
consult with him what to say, what to do; and to learn more distinctly
than I had done from terrified, incoherent servants, the rights of so
dreadful a story. When I returned, I found, to my amazement, a young
stranger in the drawing-room; it was Mr. Margrave,--Miss Brabazon
had brought him at his request. Lilian was in the room, too, and my
astonishment was increased, when she said to me with a singular smile,
vague but tranquil: 'I know all about Allen Fenwick; Mr. Margrave has
told me all. He is a friend of Allen's. He says there is no cause
for fear.' Mr. Margrave then apologized to me for his intrusion in a
caressing, kindly manner, as if one of the family. He said he was so
intimate with you that he felt that he could best break to Miss Ashleigh
information she might receive elsewhere, for that he was the only man
in the town who treated the charge with ridicule. You know the wonderful
charm of this young man's manner. I cannot explain to you how it was,
but in a few moments I was as much at home with him as if he had been
your brother. To be brief, having once come, he came constantly. He
had moved, two days before you went to Derval Court, from his hotel to
apartments in Mr. ----'s house, just opposite. We could see him on his
balcony from our terrace; he would smile to us and come across. I did
wrong in slighting your injunction, and suffering Lilian to do so. I
could not help it, he was such a comfort to me,--to her, too--in her
tribulation. He alone had no doleful words, wore no long face; he alone
was invariably cheerful. 'Everything,' he said, 'would come right in a
day or two.'"

"And Lilian could not but admire this young man, he is so beautiful."

"Beautiful? Well, perhaps. But if