led him there. But although worried and
annoyed at the stupid jokes of the old boy, Sir
John felt still more angry when he reflected
that what Colonel Duckson knew was invariably
and very quickly imparted to all the
Oriental Club, as well as to the leading members
of the great Anglo-Indian colony which inhabits
the southern parts of Tyburnia and the northern
parts of Kensington. He felt certain that
before a month was over the very name of the
terrace, and the number of the house which the
unsuspecting Miss Fabers inhabited, would be
known, talked of, and canvassed in every house
in London of which the rent was paid by a
retired Indian military man or a pensioned
member of the Indian Civil Service. He was
therefore all the more convinced that it was high
time " something " should be done, and yet when
he left the club he was as undecided as ever
what to do. He put off the hour of going
home as long as he possibly could. He read
and re-read the Pall Mall Gazette of that
evening until he knew it all by heart.
He then took up the Globe, saw what that
organ had to say against Mr. Bright and in
favour of Mr. Disraeli; and by way of being
impartial he then read what the Evening Star
had to say on the other side. At last the club
began to empty, and as he had no possible
excuse for remaining longer in it, he betook
himself home, hoping that the scene which he
anticipated with Annie would be deferred until
the morrow.

"Has Lady Milson gone to bed yet?" were
the first words he uttered to the servant who
let him in, and he put that question in as
unconcerned a tone as it was possible for him to
assume.

"Her ladyship started for Brighton, Sir John,
by the 8.30 train. She heard of her sister
being taken very ill, and said that I was to give
you this letter," was the reply of the butler,
who, although perfectly respectful in his
manner, seemed to know, by instinct as it were, that
there was something wrong.

"Gone to Brighton?" exclaimed Sir John,
who had never before realised what loneliness
was, and who felt as if the home of the last
thirty years had been broken down at a blow.
"Gone to Brighton?" he asked again.

"Yes, Sir John. Her ladyship came home
about seven o'clock, said she had heard of the
sudden illness of her sister, and did not know
where you were to be found, so I was to give
you this letter when you came home."

The letter, which Sir John opened when he
got to his study, was not a very long one, but
it contained an enclosure which annoyed him
perhaps even more than the letter itself.

After what I saw to-day, you will not be surprised
at my leaving your house, which I feel, as you
must, can no longer be my home. I go down to
Brighton, and will send you my address when I get
lodgings. When people of our age separate, the
less scandal it is done with the better. I leave you
to make out what story you like, and what money
arrangements you deem fit. I do not, and shall not,
utter a word of reproach; nor do I wish to write
you a sensational letter to attempt to recal you to
what you once were. When, after being married
more than thirty years, a husband behaves as you
have done, he must do so with his eyes open. The
enclosed I found to-day on the hall table. I opened
it without thinking what I was doing, and find it
confirms what I have for some time half suspected,
and what to-day at the Crystal Palace showed me
was the case. I shall not say another word.
A. M.

The enclosure was written in a large
business-like hand, and ran as follows:

35, Little Bride-street, W.C.
May 13, 1865.
WESTERN versus MILSON.
Sir. We are instructed by our client, Mr. John
Western, of 14, East-square, Kensington, to inform
you that he has had sereral complaints from his
tenants in East-terrace respecting the ladies for
whom his house, No. 6, East-terrace, was taken in
your name. Mr. Western was not aware at the
time you took the house that you did not intend to
inhabit it yourself. He has found out that neither
of the ladies who do live there is your wife, and
therefore, without going further into the question,
begs that you will consider the agreement which
was signed between you for your three years`
tenancy of house as null and void, and that you
will vacate the same with as little delay as
possible. We are further instructed to state that,
unless we receive from you within three days from
this date a written engagement to vacate the said
house on or before the 25th proximo, we are
directed to proceed against you in an action of ejectment,
but trust you will save us the necessity of so
doing. This without prejudice.
We are, Sir, your most obedient Servants,
LANE AND BIRT,
Solicitors for Mr. Western.
To Major-General Sir John Milson, K.C.B.

"Pleasant, indeed," groaned Sir John to
himself, after he had read the two letters;
"pleasant, indeed, to have all this worry, not
being myself in the very least to blame, but for
having put myself very much out of the way in
order to serve a friend. What is to be done?"

Sir John was not only not a selfish man, but
was one who generally saw quickly what was his
line of duty, and never hesitated to go through
with it, however disagreeable it might be. In
the present instance his devotion to his friend,
and his determination not to betray the secret
entrusted to him, had broken up his home,
and would very soon make him a byword in
the society in which he moved. To be more
than suspected at sixty years of age of doing
that which would be condemned in a
married man of twenty, and to be accused of
what he never was guilty of, were enough to
annoy the best-tempered of men. Sir John had,
in point of fact, made himself a martyr for an old
friend; he had incurred the odium of wasting
the savings of his long Indian service, and of
wronging his wife in a way for which there
could be no excuse, both of which accusations
were equally unjust. He slept over the matter,