go.'

As the reader knows, Roger Carbury had not latterly held this cousin
of his in much esteem. He knew her to be worldly and he thought her to
be unprincipled. But now, at this moment, her exceeding love for the
son whom she could no longer pretend to defend, wiped out all her
sins. He forgot the visit made to Carbury under false pretences, and
the Melmottes, and all the little tricks which he had detected, in his
appreciation of an affection which was pure and beautiful. 'If you
like to let your house for a period,' he said, 'mine is open to you.'

'But, Felix?'

'You shall take him there. I am all alone in the world. I can make a
home for myself at the cottage. It is empty now. If you think that
would save you you can try it for six months.'

'And turn you out of your own house? No, Roger. I cannot do that. And,
Roger;--what is to be done about Hetta?' Hetta herself had retreated,
leaving Roger and her mother alone together, feeling sure that there
would be questions asked and answered in her absence respecting Mrs
Hurtle, which her presence would prevent. She wished it could have
been otherwise--that she might have been allowed to hear it all herself
--as she was sure that the story coming through her mother would not
savour so completely of unalloyed truth as if told to her by her
cousin Roger.

'Hetta can be trusted to judge for herself,' he said.

'How can you say that when she has just accepted this young man? Is it
not true that he is even now living with an American woman whom he has
promised to marry?'

'No;--that is not true.'

'What is true then? Is he not engaged to the woman?' Roger hesitated a
moment. 'I do not know that even that is true. When last he spoke to
me about it he declared that the engagement was at an end. I have told
Hetta to ask himself. Let her tell him that she has heard of this
woman from you, and that it behoves her to know the truth. I do not
love him, Lady Carbury. He has no longer any place in my friendship.
But I think that if Hetta asks him simply what is the nature of his
connexion with Mrs Hurtle, he will tell her the truth.'

Roger did not again see Hetta before he left the house, nor did he see
his cousin Felix at all. He had now done all that he could do by his
journey up to London, and he returned on that day back to Carbury.
Would it not be better for him, in spite of the protestations which he
had made, to dismiss the whole family from his mind? There could b