t without changing the widow's
determination. Being a remarkably selfish creature, all he desired was
that Agnes should live a solitary life as a kind of banker, to supply
him with money whenever he chose to ask for the same. Pine he had not
been able to manage, but he felt quite sure that he could bully his
sister into doing what he wanted. It both enraged and surprised him to
find that she had a will of her own and was not content to obey his
egotistical orders. Agnes would not even remain under his roof--as he
wanted her to, lest some other person should get hold of her and the
desirable millions--but returned to her London house. The only comfort
he had was that Lambert was not with her, and therefore--as he devoutly
hoped--she would meet some man who would cause her to forget the Abbot's
Wood recluse. So long as Agnes retained the money, Garvington did not
particularly object to her marrying, as he always hoped to cajole and
bully ready cash out of her, but he would have preferred had she
remained single, as then she could be more easily plundered.

"And yet I don't know," he said to his long-suffering wife. "While she's
a widow there's always the chance that she may take the bit between her
teeth and marry Noel, in which case she loses everything. It will be as
well to get her married."

"You will have no selection of the husband this time," said Lady
Garvington, whose sympathies were entirely for Agnes. "She will choose
for herself."

"Let her," retorted Garvington, with feigned generosity. "So long as she
does not choose Noel; hang him!"

"He's the very man she will choose;" replied his wife, and Garvington,
uneasily conscious that she was probably right, cursed freely all women
in general and his sister in particular. Meanwhile he went to Paris to
look after a famous chef, of whom he had heard great things, and left
his wife in London with strict injunctions to keep a watch on Agnes.

The widow was speedily made aware of these instructions, for when Lady
Garvington came to stay with her sister-in-law at the sumptuous Mayfair
mansion, she told her hostess about the conversation. More than that,
she even pressed her to marry Noel, and be happy.

"Money doesn't do so much, after all, when you come to think of it,"
lamented Lady Garvington. "And I know you'd be happier with Noel, than
living here with all this horrid wealth."

"What would Freddy say if he heard you talk so, Jane?"

"I don't know what else