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ton diplomatically. There is nothing serious the matter, however,' he went on, and most courteously he touched the brim of his hat in answer to Simonds' Good-night, sir;' proving thereby he was, as that functionary said to Mrs. Larrup, 'quite the gentleman.'

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Ah, my friends, the day is coming, and a good day it will prove, when you will all have to be quite the gentleman,' as well to your inferiors as your equals. The 'gentlemen' of old were gentlemen once, gentlemen always; and the gentlemen of the future will be compelled to revert to their splendid example.

A plain, and in some respects a rough, man, Doctor Dilton was loyal, honest, stanch. Also, he was tender withal, and from the very bottom of his soul he pitied Sir John Moffat. As a matter of course, his first and best sympathies were with Mr. Palthorpe; but as he walked away from Holyrood House, and considered all that exposure and disgrace would mean to a man occupying so prominent a position, his heart sank within him, and he thanked Heaven it was not his hand that should deal the blow.

He understood something of the matter now. Knew that, whatever sin might have preceded the marriage, Sir John had tried to act fairly by a woman he believed a widow.

'Whatever wrong there has been,' he considered,' was her doing. Well, she will have to pay an awful penalty for it all ere long.'

When he reached his cousin's house, the servant said there was a lady waiting for him in the dining-room, and entering that apartment he found Miss Aggles.

'I could not rest,' she began hurriedly, without coming round

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to tell you what happened today. I have seen Mira.'

He could not help starting; it seemed as if all the parts of the terrible puzzle were fitting themselves together with no assistance save that of some mysterious Fate.

'Where?' he asked. 'How did you chance to come across her?' 'She called at our place.'

'She did what! exclaimed Doctor Dilton, as though doubting the evidence of his senses.

Not knowing she was going to meet me, you may be sure of that,' answered Miss Aggles, with grim earnestness. 'She came with a Miss Banks to call. I happened to be in the drawing-room, when she walked in as unconcerned and assured as possible, splendidly dressed, looking baughty and insolent, and magnificently handsome. O doctor, what a beautiful creature she is even now! And I can't tell, I am sure, how I knew her after all these years, but I did in a moment; and I was so amazed-so frightened indeed-I said "Mira," just like that, before I could think what I was doing.'

'And what did she say?' inquired Doctor Dilton.

'Not a word—not a syllable; she seemed to shrink and get smaller before my eyes; she lifted her hands this way,' and Miss Aggles held her own out before her as if to ward off some tangible foe, and backed, backed, Doctor Dilton, out of the room.'

6

'God bless me !' exclaimed the doctor; for Miss Aggles' account of the interview was graphic, and he could grasp all the horror such a meeting must have held for Thomas Palthorpe's faithless wife. And what happened then?' he asked at last. 'Did you follow her?'

'No, I did not, I felt too much stunned; but Miss Banks did. She is a lithe active little wo

tain lady in the days when I was younger is safe with me. Good bye.' And quite freely he held out his hand in farewell.

Perhaps in that very fact she read danger.

'What do you mean,' she asked, by suggesting I am not Lady Moffat?

'I suggested nothing,' he answered. I am quite willing to take you for what you profess to be. So long as I am asked to attend Lady Moffat, I come to see Lady Moffat. If you do not wish me to come again, I will stay away.'

'No; I would rather you came,' she said, after a moment's pause; "though what evil wind blew you to Kensington, I cannot imagine.'

'I simply came here to keep my cousin's practice together, while he goes down to my place ill,' was the reply.

Since we bought this house, I have never known a day's peace,' she remarked wearily; never-never. I wish Palace Gardens had been buried fathoms deep before we heard of it.'

You played for high stakes.' And lost,' she replied-' and lost.'

'If I might venture a suggestion-' he hesitated.

"Venture, whatever it may be,' she said.

'I would tell Sir John everything that is on your mind.'

'Too late,' was the despairing answer; 'too late-too late!'

'Unless I hear from you to the contrary, I will see you again to-morrow,' said Doctor Dilton. 'I shall send you something directly that should prove of benefit.'

And so, without more formal leave-taking, he quitted the room, pausing just for a moment, as he closed the door behind him, to

draw a long breath of wonder and relief.

As he so paused, he saw a gentleman walk along the corridor and down the staircase. It was Sir John Moffat; and instinctively Doctor Dilton slackened his pace, ere following in his wake. There were many reasons-hundreds they then seemed-why he should not at that moment meet the owner of Holyrood House.

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The cab is at the door, Sir John,' he heard the butler say, and I have put in the luggage.'

'Thank you,' said Sir John. And Doctor Dilton proceeding slowly down the grand flightwhich at Holyrood House does not spring out of the main hall, but gives upon it-could see Sir John take his hat from Simonds, and suffer that functionary to assist him with his outer coat.

Not liking to stay, not caring to intrude, the doctor followed Sir John's footsteps leisurely across the hall. He saw him pass through the door, enter the cab; heard Simonds ask where the man was to drive, and say,

'Victoria-in time for the French mail.'

Then modestly he edged his own way out past Simonds, who stood on the steps looking into the night, and considering all the sins of all the masters he had ever served.

What a lovely night for the time of year!' said Doctor Dilton, who had lived too long in the country to fall into the fatal mistake Londoners affect of 'keeping the lower orders at their distance.'

'Lovely, sir,' answered Simonds, moving a step or two back. May I take the liberty of asking how her ladyship is now? this tentatively.

'I hope I shall find her better to-morrow,' answered Doctor Dil

ton diplomatically. There is nothing serious the matter, however,' he went on, and most courteously he touched the brim of his hat in answer to Simonds' 'Good-night, sir;' proving thereby he was, as that functionary said to Mrs. Larrup, 'quite the gentleman.'

Ah, my friends, the day is coming, and a good day it will prove, when you will all have to be 'quite the gentleman,' as well to your inferiors as your equals. The 'gentlemen' of old were gentlemen once, gentlemen always; and the gentlemen of the future will be compelled to revert to their splendid example.

A plain, and in some respects a rough, man, Doctor Dilton was loyal, honest, stanch. Also, he was tender withal, and from the very bottom of his soul he pitied Sir John Moffat. As a matter of course, his first and best sympathies were with Mr. Palthorpe; but as he walked away from Holyrood House, and considered all that exposure and disgrace would mean to a man occupying so prominent a position, his heart sank within him, and he thanked Heaven it was not his hand that should deal the blow.

He understood something of the matter now. Knew that,

whatever sin might have preceded the marriage, Sir John had tried to act fairly by a woman he believed a widow.

'Whatever wrong there has been,' he considered,' was her doing. Well, she will have to pay an awful penalty for it all ere long.'

When he reached his cousin's house, the servant said there was a lady waiting for him in the dining-room, and entering that apartment he found Miss Aggles.

'I could not rest,' she began hurriedly, without coming round

to tell you what happened today. I have seen Mira.'

He could not help starting; it seemed as if all the parts of the terrible puzzle were fitting themselves together with no assistance save that of some mysterious Fate.

'Where?' he asked. 'How did you chance to come across her?' 'She called at our place.'

'She did what!' exclaimed Doctor Dilton, as though doubting the evidence of his senses.

Not knowing she was going to meet me, you may be sure of that,' answered Miss Aggles, with grim earnestness. 'She came with a Miss Banks to call. I happened to be in the drawing-room, when she walked in as unconcerned and assured as possible, splendidly dressed, looking haughty and insolent, and magnificently hand

some.

O doctor, what a beautiful creature she is even now! And I can't tell, I am sure, how I knew her after all these years, but I did in a moment; and I was so amazed—so frightened indeed-I said "Mira," just like that, before I could think what I was doing.'

'And what did she say?' inquired Doctor Dilton.

'Not a word-not a syllable; she seemed to shrink and get smaller before my eyes; she lifted her hands this way,' and Miss Aggles held her own out before her as if to ward off some tangible foe, and backed, backed, Doctor Dilton, out of the room.'

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'God bless me !' exclaimed the doctor; for Miss Aggles' account of the interview was graphic, and he could grasp all the horror such a meeting must have held for Thomas Palthorpe's faithless wife.

And what happened then?' he asked at last. 'Did you follow her?'

'No, I did not, I felt too much stunned; but Miss Banks did. She is a lithe active little wo

man, though elderly; and she ran down the stairs and out of the house, saying she feared dear Lady Moffat was ill.'

Yes; anything more?'

'She returned in a few minutes, to apologise, as she said, for herself and friend. Dear Lady Moffat, the sweetest and most sensitive creature on earth, had been quite overcome with the sudden shock. "She tells me you nursed her," went on Miss Aggles, quoting Miss Banks.

And what did you answer?' asked Doctor Dilton, who was able to see the humour of the statement.

'It took me a little aback; but I said, "Well, yes, I certainly had nursed her."

'What occurred next?'

'Nothing much, I think. Miss Banks of course was inquisitive. She is not a nice person, I think; but she did not get any information out of me.'

There ensued a short silence; then Doctor Dilton asked,

'Have you told him? No need to particularise whom he meant by name.

Not yet. I am not sure that I shall. He came home thoroughly unnerved. He has found the-the-person-you know.' 'Yes, I know,' answered Doctor Dilton.

'And then what a horrible complication it makes, her being married; and to such a great gentleman, too! Who is Sir John Moffat?'

'Haven't a notion,' said Doctor Dilton.

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'Such a tangle,' she said, ' such a tangle! And then there is Rachel, too. He tells me she is alive. Now, her father ought to claim her at any rate, ought he

not?'

'He has waited a good many years,' observed Doctor Dilton dryly. 'I should imagine he could wait a few days longer.'

'And here is another trouble, too,' went on Miss Aggles. Mr. Lassils and Madge have to-day finally agreed not to marry.' 'Why not? he asked. 'I understood Lassils, at all events, did not mean to give up hope for a long time yet.'

'He has found out she likes somebody else.'

'Who, in Heaven's name? 'He says Mr. Palthorpe.' 'Good Lord!' ejaculated the doctor. 'You don't believe it, do you?'

'I am not sure,' said Miss Aggles dubiously. It never occurred to me till he mentioned it; but I am not sure now.'

'She has no idea he is married, I suppose?'

'It was not a matter we were likely to mention, I am sure,' continued poor Miss Aggles. 'What with one thing, and what with another, I feel as if I could not be in my right senses.'

CHAPTER XXXVII.

WAITING.

A MONTH passed quickly by, and still the world knew nothing of the true state of affairs at Holyrood House. From that night, when, without his dinner, and without the slightest warning or preparation, Sir John drove away from the door, he had never crossed its threshold. In the first instance he went to Paris; but

Simonds knew he had returned to London, and was to be found at his place of business in the City. If there had been a quarrel between himself and Lady Moffat, no servant about the house was cognisant of the fact; indeed, no ground existed for supposing any disagreement had occurred, for on the morning of the day in question, they had parted upon apparently perfectly friendly terms, and when he returned in the evening he did not see her.

The doctor was with her ladyship when Sir John passed hurriedly up the staircase; and he left the house, having, no doubt, Simonds and Winter decided, confided the cause of his sudden departure to Miss Rachel.

That it was all very odd the whole household agreed; but domestic opinion inclined to the belief that something had gone wrong about money.

A considerable number of large establishments were broken up about that period; the papers were full of frauds, failures, conspiracies, and vague rumours of further impending disasters; and, for his own part, Simonds could

see

no reason why his master should not 'go' as well as anybody else.

Very likely her ladyship had heard a hint about the matter when she was taken ill so suddenly; and, under any circumstances, there could be no doubt she and Sir John understood each other perfectly.

'He'll be found missing one fine morning, as Seaton was,' considered the butler, and she'll stop to save as much out of the wreck as she can.'

The whole atmosphere of the house was felt to be steeped in mystery. Lady Moffat, on pretence of ill health, would see no visitors. Yet Winter reported to

the kitchen detectives there was nothing the matter with her, save temper.

Directly after Sir John's departure, an old lady had called upon, and been closeted with, Lady Moffat for a couple of hours; and, in course of time, it became known to the servants this lady came from the house in Palace Gardens 'where the Australian people lived.'

Somehow, also, Mr. Simonds ascertained that an Australian gentleman had been at Sir John's office, and that he (Sir John) never seemed to be the same man since.'

'Depend upon it, there's losses,' said Mrs. Larrup oracularly; 'that's what it is-losses.'

I am quite of your opinion, cook,' agreed Miss Winter, flitting airily about the lower regions, and remarking from time to time she never had lived previously among people who were so precious close as the Moffats.

'They never let fall a word; and if she' (in the easy confidence of private life Winter referred to her mistress in the simple manner stated) 'does get a letter, she burns it away to white ash-she does, I assure you.'

'When folks as should be gentlefolks, and act according, begin to look after candle-endsas a person may consider pounds of meat is no more nor candleends to them,' remarked Mrs. Larrup, with genuine belief in her tone-'it does not need any conjurer to tell what is coming. I have always said, and I always will say, that if them as is set in high places keep their position proper, their position will keep them; but when they begin apoking and a-prying and a-questioning, and paying their own. bills and disputing farthings, it looks bad, and it'll end bad; and,

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