"Is it possible, Natalie?" she asked. "Has Launcelot Linzie really been
here, unknown to your father or to me?"

"Where is the harm if he has?" answered Natalie, with a sudden outbreak
of temper. "Am I never to see my cousin again, because Mr. Turlington
happens to be jealous of him?"

She suddenly turned away her head. The rich color flowed over her face
and neck. Miss Lavinia, proceeding sternly with the administration
of the necessary reproof, was silenced midway by a new change in her
niece's variable temper. Natalie burst into tears. Satisfied with this
appearance of sincere contrition, the old lady consented to overlook
what had happened; and, for this occasion only, to keep her niece's
secret. They would all be in Somersetshire, she remarked, before any
more breaches of discipline could be committed. Richard had fortunately
made no discoveries; and the matter might safely be trusted, all things
considered, to rest where it was.

Miss Lavinia might possibly have taken a less hopeful view of the
circumstances, if she had known that one of the men-servants at Muswell
Hill was in Richard Turlington's pay, and that this servant had seen
Launce leave the grounds by the back-garden gate.

NINTH SCENE.

The Drawing-Room.

"Amelia!"

"Say something."

"Ask him to sit down."

Thus addressing one another in whispers, the three stepdaughters of
Lady Winwood stood bewildered in their own drawing-room, helplessly
confronting an object which appeared before them on the threshold of the
door.

The date was the 23d of December. The time was between two and three in
the afternoon. The occasion was the return of the three sisters from the
Committee meeting of the Sacred Concerts' Society. And the object was
Richard Turlington.

He stood hat in hand at the door, amazed by his reception. "I have come
up this morning from Somersetshire," he said. "Haven't you heard? A
matter of business at the office has forced me to leave my guests at my
house in the country. I return to them to-morrow. When I say my guests,
I mean the Graybrookes. Don't you know they are staying with me? Sir
Joseph and Miss Lavinia and Natalie?" On the utterance of Natalie's
name, the sisters roused themselves. They turned about and regarded each
other with looks of dismay. Turlington's patience began to fail him.
"Will you be so good as to tell me what all this means?" he said, a
little sharply. "Miss Lavinia asked me to call here when sh