Only it seemed that as a true friend, if I
may say so----"

"Indeed I should be very grieved if you might not. But perhaps I ought
to tell you that Sir Arthur and I have a great idea of leaving young
people to settle their own affairs as much as possible. It has always
answered well hitherto, but Honour is, as you say, very young, and she
has been brought up differently from the rest----"

"Yes?" said Mrs Jardine, with such breathless interest that her hostess
had not the heart to baulk her curiosity.

"We were living at Boulogne before my husband was sent to the Cape,"
she said, choosing her words with care--"for the advantages of
education, of course, and--well, dear Mrs Jardine, you know what
half-pay means as well as I do, and I need not apologize, need I? Two
elderly cousins of Sir Arthur's happened to pass through, and we were
able to offer them hospitality when the packet was prevented crossing
by a storm. They took the greatest fancy to little Honour, and wished
to adopt her, but we refused. Then came the Cape appointment--to the
Eastern Province, where the climate is so dangerous to young children
born elsewhere, and they renewed their offer. And we consented to let
them have Honour until she was seventeen. They were most kind to her,
I am sure."

"Yes?" breathed Mrs Jardine softly again.

"Really, there is little more to say. Naturally your child becomes
something of a stranger when you do not see her for fifteen years. But
pray don't imagine that I blame the Miss Cinnamonds. Honour has been
well educated, and taught to be a companion to her elders--rather too
much so, perhaps. She has visited the poor, and taught a class in the
village school, and practised all the good works which Sir Arthur says
are new in England since his day, and I believe her aunts hoped to see
her married to the curate. But unfortunately he went over to Rome."

"How truly terrible!" cried Mrs Jardine, then stopped in pitiable
confusion, remembering that the lady before her had been almost
certainly born and bred a Roman Catholic, though she now attended the
tomb-church Sunday by Sunday with Sir Arthur, and betrayed far less
impatience than he did when Mr Jardine's discourses exceeded the
regulation length.

"It might have been much worse," said Lady Cinnamond innocently. "I
cannot discover that Honour's heart was at all touched. But as you may
imagine, her aunts were much distressed, and it was almost a relief to