"Now you understand that I cannot—
certainly will not—allow my son to
commence his career hampered by debt, even
though the debt be incurred to friends
who would not press him unduly. I have
thought of the matter in all ways, for many
weary days and wearier nights, and I have
come to a fixed resolve on this point."

Mr. Frost sat leaning his head on his
hand, and with his other hand twisting and
untwisting his watch-chain. He did not
look at Mrs. Lockwood while he spoke to
her.

"Zillah, I am going to risk making you
harder against me than you are already,"
he began.

"I am harder against no one than
against myself," she answered: and then
set her mouth again inflexibly after she had
spoken.

"I am going to risk making you harder
against me than you are already, by
confessing that my chief object in coming here
to-day—so immediately after my arrival—
was not Hugh's business."

"That does not make me any harder
against you. I am not hard, in order to
please myself, Heaven knows."

"Have you heard anything from Mr.
Lane lately?"

"Sir John Gale's agent? Not since the
funeral. He undertook to let that man
know of his wife's death."

"You do not see the papers, nor hear
much news, I suppose?"

"I? No; you know I do not."

"But I suppose you have heard that Sir
John Tallis Gale is dead, and that Sir
Matthew reigns in his stead?"

"Dead! Sir John Gale dead!"

"You did not know it then?"

"Not a word, not a hint! When did
he die?"

"Twelve days ago, on the tenth of
March. And you had not heard of it?
Miss Desmond had not been informed?"
said Mr. Frost, looking half-suspiciously at
Zillah.

"Maud has scarcely seen a soul since her
aunt's death. The vicar of Shipley came
up to attend the funeral, by Lady Tallis's
express desire, and he and Maud have been
shut up in the house all day, and only go
out to take a little walk in the Regent's-
park in the evening. Hugh has been away
at the Sheardowns. I expect him home to-
morrow or the next day. And that man
is dead? Within a week of his poor wife!
How strange! Poor Lady Tallis was
unfortunate in her death as in her life. If
she had survived him but a day, she might
have had it in her power to make some
provision for Maud."

"How so?"

"Well, I suppose that man, bad as he
was, would have bequeathed his wife some
part of his fortune. And if he had died
intestate, she would have been a rich
woman. That would have been the most
likely. Men like Sir John Gale often
make no will at all."

"By an odd enough chance, I happen
to know that this man did make a will,
though."

"You?"

"Yes; I have seen it."

Zillah knew Sidney Frost well enough
to be quite sure that in saying this he was
not indulging in mere purposeless gossip.
Besides, he had said that he had not come
to Gower-street on Hugh's business. Was
the business he had come upon, in any way
connected with Sir John Gale?—with
Lady Tallis?—with Maud?

The latter thought sent a sudden hope
through her heart: a hope which seemed
almost a pang. She was so unused to hopes,
that the barest glimpse of good fortune
which her imagination might perceive, was
instantly followed by a movement of repression.
If a thing appeared good, then it
was unlikely! That was Zillah's experience
of life at fifty odd years.

"You have seen Sir John Gale's will?"
she said, folding her small, fair hands quietly
on the table by which she sat, and bending
over a little towards Mr. Frost.

"He died in Naples. I was there at the
time. I became, through some business
transactions, acquainted with a gentleman
who is a great friend, and—he says—a
relative, of the very beautiful young lady
who was called in Naples Lady Gale."

"Ah, I see! He has left all his money
to her—to that vicar's daughter! What a
fool I was not to think of that before! I
might have known that the person who
least deserved it, would get the prize!"

Zillah would not have admitted to herself
that she had hoped: and not having hoped,
she could not be said to be disappointed.
Nevertheless it was a secret feeling of
disappointment that gave an extra flavour of
bitterness to her words.

"I have always thought you one of the
most clear-headed women I ever knew,
Zillah;" said Mr. Frost, " as well as one
of the most discreet and trustworthy; and
I am going to prove the sincerity of my
opinion, by telling you a strange story, on