u have satisfied yourself about the gentleman
who has so much disquieted you. I do not know that the
whole affair would be worth a moment's consideration, were
it not that mamma and I, living as we do so secluded a
life, are peculiarly apt to feel any attack upon our good
name,--which is pretty nearly all that is left to us. If
ever there were women who should be free from attack,
at any rate from those of their own family, we are such
women. We never interfere with you, or with anybody; and I
think you might abstain from harassing us by accusations.

Pray do not write to mamma in such a strain again, unless
you are quite sure of your ground.

Yours truly,

PRISCILLA STANBURY.

"Impudent!" said Miss Stanbury to Martha, when she had read the
letter. "Ill-conditioned, impudent vixen!"

"She was provoked, miss," said Martha.

"Well; yes; yes;--and I suppose it is right that you should tell me
of it. I dare say it is part of what I ought to bear for being an old
fool, and too cautious about my own flesh and blood. I will bear it.
There. I was wrong, and I will say that I have been justly punished.
There,--there!"

How very much would Miss Stanbury's tone have been changed had
she known that at that very moment Colonel Osborne was eating his
breakfast at Mrs. Crocket's inn, in Nuncombe Putney!

CHAPTER XIX.

BOZZLE, THE EX-POLICEMAN.

[Illustration]

When Mr. Trevelyan had gone through the miserable task of breaking up
his establishment in Curzon Street, and had seen all his furniture
packed, including his books, his pictures, and his pet Italian
ornaments, it was necessary that he should go and live somewhere. He
was very wretched at this time,--so wretched that life was a burden
to him. He was a man who loved his wife;--to whom his child was very
dear; and he was one too to whom the ordinary comforts of domestic
life were attractive and necessary. There are men to whom release
from the constraint imposed by family ties will be, at any rate for
a time, felt as a release. But he was not such a man. There was no
delight to him in being able to dine at his club, and being free to
go whither he pleased in the evening. As it was, it pleased him to
go no whither in the evenings; and his mornings were equally blank
to him. He went so often to Mr. Bideawhile, that the poor old lawyer
became quite tired of the Trevelyan family quarrel. Even Lady
Milborough, with al