’And you think me very wrong, of course.  I will endeavour to do nothing wrong, but it is so.  I have not said a word of encouragement to Mr Stanbury; but I love him with all my heart.  Ought I to tell you a lie when you question me?  Or is it natural that I should never wish to see again a person whom I love better than all the world?  It seems to me that a girl can hardly be right if she have any choice of her own.  Here are two men, one rich and the other poor.  I shall fall to the ground between them.  I know that.  I have fallen to the ground already.  I like the one I can’t marry.  I don’t care a straw for the one who could give me a grand house.  That is falling to the ground.  But I don’t see that it is hard to understand, or that I have disgraced myself.’

‘I said nothing of disgrace, Nora.’

‘But you looked it.’

‘I did not intend to look it, dearest.’

He knew he was right.

’And remember this, Emily, I have told you everything because you asked me.  I do not mean to tell anybody else, at all.  Mamma would not understand me.  I have not told him, and I shall not.’

‘You mean Mr Stanbury?’

’Yes; I mean Mr Stanbury.  As to Mr Glascock, of course I shall tell mamma that.  I have no secret there.  That is his secret, and I suppose mamma should know it.  But I will have nothing told about the other.  Had I accepted him, or even hinted to him that I cared for him, I would tell mamma at once.’

After that there came something of a lecture, or something, rather, of admonition, from Mrs Outhouse.  That lady did not attempt to upbraid, or to find any fault; but observed that as she understood that Mr Stanbury had no means whatever, and as Nora herself had none, there had better be no further intercourse between them, till, at any rate, Sir Marmaduke and Lady Rowley should be in London.’so I told him that he must not come here any more, my dear,’ said Mrs Outhouse.

‘You are quite right, aunt.  He ought not to come here.’

‘I am so glad that you agree with me.’

’I agree with you altogether.  I think I was bound to see him when he asked to see me; but the thing is altogether out of the question.  I don’t think he’ll come any more, aunt.’  Then Mrs Outhouse was quite satisfied that no harm had been done.

A month had now passed since anything had been heard at St. Diddulph’s from Mr Trevelyan, and it seemed that many months might go on in the same dull way.  When Mrs Trevelyan first found herself in her uncle’s house, a sum of two hundred pounds had been sent to her; and since that she had received a letter from her husband’s lawyer saying that a similar amount would be sent to her every three months, as long as she was separated from her husband.  A portion of this she had given over to Mr Outhouse; but this pecuniary assistance by no means comforted that unfortunate gentleman in his trouble.  ‘I don’t want to get into debt,’ he said,