e vainly tried to match the pieces together. Well, thanks to Mrs.
Senter's revelations, the puzzle no longer exists. Of course, long ago,
I made up my mind that there was a mistake somewhere, and that it wasn't
on my side; still, I couldn't understand certain things. Now, there
_isn't one detail_ which I can't understand very well; and that's why
I'm so ready to believe Mrs. Senter's story to be true. Most
disagreeable things are; and this is certainly as disagreeable for poor
little Ellaline as it was meant to be disagreeable for me.

Mrs. Senter excused herself for telling me horrid tales about my people
by saying that my ignorance gave me the air of being ungrateful to Sir
Lionel, and unappreciative of all he had done for me. That he, being a
man, was likely to blame me for extravagance and indifference to
benefits received, although aware, when he actually reflected on the
subject, that I sinned through ignorance. She thought (said she) that it
would be only fair to tell me the whole truth, as I could then change my
line of conduct accordingly; but she hoped I wouldn't give her away to
Sir Lionel or Dick, as she was speaking for my sake.

When I had promised, she informed me that "my mother," Ellaline de
Nesville, a distant cousin of Lionel Pendragon's, was engaged to him
when they were both very young. There was a lawsuit going on at the time
about some tin mines in Cornwall, from which most of his money came, for
the property was claimed by a man from another branch of the family, who
suddenly appeared waving a marriage certificate or a will, or something
melodramatic. Well, the lawsuit was decided for the other man, just
about the time that Sir Lionel (who wasn't Sir Lionel then) got shot in
the arm and seemed likely to be a cripple for life. Both blows coming
together were too much for Mademoiselle de Nesville, who was fascinating
and pretty, but apparently a frightful little cat as well as flirt, so
she promptly bolted with an intimate friend of her fiance, a Mr.
Frederic Lethbridge, rich and "well connected." They ran off and were
married in Scotland, as Ellaline the second expects to be. (Odd how even
profane history repeats itself!) And this though Mr. Lethbridge knew his
friend was desperately in love with the girl.

What happened immediately after I don't know, except that Mrs. Senter
says Sir Lionel was horribly cut up, and lost his interest in life. But
anyhow, sooner or later, the lawsuit, which had go