'Now, my dear, do not become hot and extravagant.'

'I am not hot and extravagant, but I cannot understand your pushing up your cup for coffee, and wanting less sugar, when the character of your daughter and the legitimacy of your grandchild were at stake.'

'They were not at stake, Jane; do be reasonable. Whatever that story about Lambert's marriage may have been in reality, the only menace to you was from that person who claimed to have been Lambert's wife.'

'She never was his wife.'

'Never mind that. Now she is about to become Mrs. Curgenven of Curgenven, to occupy a position which she says ought to have been hers for the last nineteen years. She gains everything she has desired.'

'It is monstrous that she-such a Thing as she-should get her way.'

'She has got it, and will be content. Every occasion for her to rake up that miserable old story is taken from her.'

'She will do it to spite me.'

Not unless you drive her to do so by unreasoning impatience and resentment.'

'Resentment indeed!' Mrs. Curgenven tossed her head; 'as if I could feel any such emotion as resentment towards such a despicable, abandoned scum of womanhood as that!'

'My dear, your words are strong.'

'Not a particle too strong.'

'I hope you will not show any ill-feeling towards her. You are not justified in pronouncing on her moral character without knowledge.'

'Oh, I know!'

'What do you know against her?'

'Never mind; I do know.'

‘And I insist on being told what it is you have learned that has not reached me.'

She has been on the stage.'

Well; she had to earn her livelihood.'

'Everyone knows what the stage means, and in America

too!'

'You are judging wickedly and cruelly.'

'I know quite enough. The very fact that she pretends to have been Lambert's wife is in itself condemnation. If that were

not enough, is it not fatal to her moral character that she should pounce down on Percival and devour him?'

'Really, Jane, this is indeed unreasonable. You yourself

wanted to secure Percival for Rose.'

'Oh, there is no harm in that.'

'Then where is the harm in this lady taking him?'

'Lady! Papa, how can you speak of her by such a term? She is no lady, never was, and never can be.'

'Instead of her pouncing down on Percival, it seems to me that Percival has taken a long flight, hovered over Drumduskie, and swooped down on her.'

'She summoned him there.'

'How do you know?'

'I am morally sure of it. Percival is a fool, and she is clever as the evil one himself.'

'Anyhow,' said the rector, 'give me my paper. The thing is done, or will very soon be done. Percival has made his choice, and this person will very shortly be here, installed in the manor house as Mrs. Curgenven of Curgenven.'

'You are not going to be so wicked as to marry them?'

'I am not asked. I presume they will be married in

Edinburgh or in London, and come on here after the wedding or after the honeymoon. You will have to compose yourself to receive them.'

'I never will receive her. I never will go near the house. I don't think I will go to church if she dares to show her brazen face within the sacred walls.'

'My dear Jane, you must not offend Percival or her. Remember there are all the clubs in the parish, there is the National School, there is the Institute, the Parochial Library, there are the Mission woman and the Scripture reader, the Choir, the Band of Hope, Anglo-Israel-all dependent in the main on the subscriptions from Curgenven House. I cannot afford to be on bad terms with Percival, and that without reason. Besides, it always has a bad look if the rector and the squire do not pull together; and, as a matter of course, all the blame is thrown on the former. It stands in the way of preferment, my dear Jane'

Then in at the door burst Justinian, with flaming cheeks and glittering eyes.

'Mr. Pamphlet-Aunt Jane'-Mrs. Curgenven was not his

aunt, but the boy had been allowed so to designate her 'I have had a letter from the gov. Oh, such dreadful things! He's going to be married. It is a shame; and I always thought he loved my mother so. And it is to her who was thrown out of the gig and broke her collar-bone. I don't say but she's not such a bad lot, only now she'll be sticking herself between us, and the Boss and I will never be so chummy as we have been.' His voice shook, tears were forming in his eyes.

'It is infamous! That woman will disgrace your father and the place,' said Mrs. Curgenven.

'Be silent, Jane. I will not permit this.' The rector stood up, he was roused and angry. Jane drew back with a sullen look in her countenance.

'My boy,' said Mr. Pamphlet, 'your father has a perfect right to choose, and has no doubt made the best choice he could-one that will suit him. You must not blame him.'

"It will spoil my happiness. The governor and I were always together.'

'It will have this good in it for you, that now you will go to

school.'

'I am too old for that.'

Then to a private tutor.'

'I should not mind. I shall be glad to be away. I cannot bear to think of my father married, and she will very likely turn his heart away from me.'

Mrs. Curgenven was about to speak, but her father raised his hand in caution.

'My dear Justin, in such a house as Curgenven there must be a mistress. Your father could not get on without a wife to manage for him. Now, as you know, everything is in confusion, the servants leaving, and pillaging right and left.'

'Let him pay a woman to be his housekeeper. But to give me another mother is too bad.'

'No woman would look after his and your interests like one who is his wife. Your father cannot in his present position consult your fancies only, but what is best for the place, for himself, and for you. Now, Justin, I am quite sure that were he alone here, unassisted, he would become desperate.'

'I don't know about that. She shall never be a mother to me.'

'You will show respect to her as your father's wife.'

Justin shrugged his shoulders.

Then arrived Mr. Physic.

'So, sir,' said the agent, you have heard the news? Wonderful, is it not? Never expected that. I have had a letter from Mr. Curgenven, and he desires that the bells should be rung, of course with your permission, to welcome him and his bride when they arrive.'

"When will that be?'

'In a week.'

'Papa,' said Mrs. Curgenven, you never will allow that!' Her colour rose. 'It will be a desecration of the bells.'

'I am the best judge of that, Jane,' said her father gravely. 'Indeed I shall. It would be remarked were the bells not to be rung. When Percival came into residence, with good feeling and kindly thought for us, either the ringers did not attempt to give him a peal or he forbade it. Now that he returns with a wife, with Mrs. Curgenven of Curgenven, of course I shall allow the bells to be rung. You may write and say so, Physic. It would be a gross and unpardonable offence against good manners and against policy to refuse them on such an occasion.'

" Quite so. Hear, hear!' said Physic. Clever, too, weren't she, to catch the great prize, before any other anglers had their rods out.'

'You will be pleased to remember his son is present,' said the rector haughtily.

'Bless me, so he is. How are you, young squire?' Justinian did not like the agent, and he responded with curtness that was short courtesy.

'Mr. Physic,' said Mrs. Curgenven, will you permit me a word in the garden with you?'

'Certainly, madam,' and with a bow he held the door as she swept out of the room.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A SECOND DISAPPOINTMENT.

"IF I may trouble you,' said Mrs. Curgenven with a stiff bend and an imperious wave of her hand in the direction of the garden-that is to say, the walled rose garden. A country parsonage is not infrequently made sweet and lovely by its old-fashioned garden. The parson has not at his command sufficient glass and

a sufficiently skilled gardener to inflict on him the fashionable bedded-out uniformity. He has to content himself with the old favourite flowers that were the delight of his predecessors, growing without more attention than occasional weeding and thinning out; flowers that have made the garden their own, consider the beds as their own, and will not be displaced for newer and more brilliant introductions; flowers robust in growth and hardy in constitution, exhaling odour as of the Spice Isles, not leaving the soil bare and barren for nine months and covering it for three, but coming and going in wondrous order, a great variety, changing kaleidoscopically every week, in winter represented by Christmas roses and aralias, and a timid cheiranthus and anemone. And the garden wall is covered with the old monthly rose, over which the laundry-maid empties the soapsuds every week, and which, in return, flowers abundantly till the midst of January.

Into such a garden as this Mrs. Curgenven introduced Mr. Physic. It possessed one long walk under a wall that faced south, against which grew fig-trees, yellow jessamine, and traveller's joy. Under the wall was a narrow bed in which at this time were beautiful pink Guernsey lilies and a border of autumn colchicum.

'Now, then,' said Mrs. Curgenven,' what do you think of this affair? Is there no way of stopping it? Can you not find that this wretched woman has a husband alive?'

'I cannot do that, madam. I am sorry, but what can I do?'

It is not my place to say what you are to do. You are a lawyer, and I suppose there are some means of preventing Mr. Curgenven from making a fool of himself and covering the family with discredit.'

'Indeed, I know of no way.'

'But it is such a terrible thing; that person is no more fit to be in Curgenven than is Esther Morideg. No neighbours will call. She will not be received into any decent house. It will be intolerable-living so near, having her occupying my rooms, sitting in my chair, having the key to my store-room. It is contamination to think of it.' Then sharply turning on Physic she asked: About her past history, what have you learned?'

'Very little. I never dreamed of her becoming the wife of Mr. Percival. All I know about her concerns the marriage. That I did investigate. I made the requisite inquiries at Naples, and ascertained that she really had married Mr. Lambert Curgenven