s. TIDMARSH.

_Mrs. Tid._ It _was_ a good deal your fault. If you had only said who you
really were--if my husband had not been idiot enough to misunderstand--if
Miss SEATON had been more straightforward, all this would never----!

[Illustration: "Sitting down heavily on a Settee."]

_Lord Strath._ We were all the victims of circumstances, weren't we? But I,
at least, have no reason to regret it. And, if I may ask one last
indulgence, will you--a--let me have an opportunity of saying good-bye to
Miss SEATON?

_Mrs. Tid._ She, she doesn't _deserve_--Oh, I don't know _what_ I'm saying.
Of _course_, Lord STRATHSPORRAN, anything, _anything_ I can do to----I will
send her down to you, if you will only wait. She shall not keep you long!

_Lord Strath._ (_alone, to himself_). It's an ill wind, &c. I shall have
MARJORY all to myself, now! To think that--but for a lucky blunder--I
should be spelling out scarabs and things on the wrong side of that wall at
this moment, and never dreaming that MARJORY was so----Ah, she's coming!
(Miss SEATON _enters, looking pale and disconsolate._) MARJORY, you've no
idea what you've missed! I _must_ tell you--it's too good to lose. What
_do_ you think all these good people have been taking me for? You'll never
guess! They actually believed I was hired from BLANKLEY'S! Give you my word
they did!... Why don't you _laugh_, MARJORY?

_Miss Seaton_ (_faintly_). I--I _am_ laughing. No, DOUGLAS, I'm not. I
can't; I haven't the conscience to. Oh, I never meant you to know--but I
must tell you, whatever comes of it! _I_ believed it too, at first.
(_Tragically._) I _did_, DOUGLAS!

_Lord Strath._ _Did_ you though, MARJORY? Then, by Jove, I _must_ have
looked the character!

_Miss Seaton_ (_timidly_). I knew you--you weren't very well off, DOUGLAS,
and so I fancied you might----Oh, I know it was hateful of me ever to think
such a thing, but I did. And you can never _really_ forgive me!

_Lord Strath._ Couldn't think of it! Shall I tell you something else,
MARJORY? I've a strong impression that you will not be an inmate of this
happy English household _much_ longer.

_Miss Seaton._ I'm _sure_ I shan't, from Mrs. TIDMARSH'S expression just
now. But I don't care!

_Lord Strath._ Don't be reckless. How do you know there isn't a moral lion
about? And where will you go next, MARJORY?

_Miss Seaton_ (_with a shrug_). I don't know. I suppose to anybody who
wants a Governess, and doesn't mind taking he