Kept in the Dark

a word in Mr. Western's hearing which led to Sir Francis Geraldine as a topic of conversation. But in reward for this she exacted from Mrs. Western an undertaking to keep her at Durton Lodge for a

old him of the promise she had made. "I thought

e is here, and as we have been very intimate for many years, and as

th you than with me, and I suppose that th

y. According to his account she was clever, agreeable, and beautiful. She lived altogether in Scotland, where her time was devoted to her children, and was now coming up to England chiefly with the purpose of seeing her brother's wife. She was to be at Durton Lodge now only for a couple of nights, and then to return and remain with the understood purpose of taking them with her back to Scotland. Of Lady Grant Cecilia had b

ing. When any mention was made of baronets either married or unmarried, of former lovers, of broken vows, or of second engagements, Miss Altifiorla would look with a meaning glance at her hostess. But of these glances Cecilia would apparently take no heed. She had soo

fiorla's manner of receiving the request made it such a burden that she could not submit herself to it. The woman looked at her and spoke to her in a manner which she was obliged to endure without seeming to endure aught that was unnatural. She looked back to her own struggles during

be expected and to be endured. There would come an end to the fortnight and the woman would be gone. "Do

ows nothing about

w her and have never seen her. It wi

o her in this house. No hint need b

nce. Laws! when you think of who Sir Francis is and of the manner in which he live

d not t

s woman to her husband, to him whom she loved so truly, to him with whom it was in the very core of her heart to have everything in common! Francesca Altifiorla to speak of her duty to him! But even this had to be borne. "Indeed, I feel every day that I am staying here that I am sacrificing duty to friendship." Oh, into what trouble had she fallen without any sin of

w, and had that air of living through the evening of her life instead of still enjoying the morning, which is peculiar to widows who have loved their husbands. She was very lovely, even in her mitigated widow's weeds, with a tall figure, and pale oval face, rather thin, but not meagre or attenuated. And Cecilia thought that she saw in her a de

a something in the manner and gait of Lady Grant which made Cecilia almost ashamed of her Exeter friend. It was not that Miss Altifiorla was ignorant, or unladylike, or ill-dressed; but that she knew her friend too well. Miss Altifiorla was little a

s could add to it. On the following morning they met at breakfast, and all went well. But Lady Grant could not but notice that the young lady from Devonshire seemed to exercise an authority incommensurat

of Sir Francis Geraldine. In her immediate agony she could hardly tell how it occurred, but she was rapidly asked a question as to her former engagement. In the asking of it there was nothing

could not at first remember how it had been said. There was simply the knowledge that the name of Sir Francis Geraldine had been used, and that it had been declared that she had been engaged to him. Up to this moment she had been very brave, and very powerful, too, over herself. Up to this she had never betrayed herself. But now her courage gave way, the colour came to her cheeks and forehead and neck, and then passed rapidly away,-and she betrayed h

e also as she thought that the sister should know it and that he should not. But all that was now at an end. It was necessary that she should answer her sister's question, and yet so difficult to find words in wh

ed Lady Grant. "Oh, my dear. That sho

ll you! If I c

e is nothing for you to tell

Nothing,

he not have known? Cecilia, you will tell

is impossible. I must wait

ifiorla k

, y

some sign. "I fancied that it might be so. I thought that there was something betwe

hing that is not known to all the world. The marvel is that he should not have kno

d you keep

ou know the story of

ere? Oh, yes, I

eiving the attention of another man, a

y, inconstant little girl. I felt

before he had thought of me. We were together and had bec

that he should h

then. Well;-he told me his st

s natura

ive him back his own tale and tell him the same thing of myself? I too have had a

ly have been t

ie should not prevail at this moment. "I had done to Sir Francis just what the girl had done to your b

y n

by. Words have been said by him which have made it impossible. Twenty times I have determined to do it, and t

st kno

sh he

t bear to be kept in the

e read his charac

onate, how honest; but yet how jealous! Were I to say that he is unforgiving I should belie him. Without many thoughts he could forgive the man wh

ow it

hink that you have loved him the less or that you are less true to him; but there will be something that will rankle, and which he wil

character just a

be angry, that it has come so late. But his anger will pass by and he will forgive you. But if he hears it from th

s he not been like all the world who have read it in the newspapers? It was

loves and marriages of other people he would never read. You may be sure at any

"I have sometimes thought that he knew it all, and regarded it as a matter on which nothing nee

om through long years of married life, the woman is not supposed to be injured. She may know, or may not know, and may hear the tale at any period of her married life, and no harm will follow. But a m

t he may not read,"

vited to read. Let it not remain so. Tell it to him all even though you may hav

uld be on her tongue no itching desire to tell the secret simply because it was there to be told. She had not threatened, or spoken of her duty, or boasted of her friendship, but had simply given her adv

he two were in the drawing-room together, using a k

's intrusion at Durton Lodge was altogether unpalatable to her. She certainly no longer loved her friend, and knew well that her friend knew that it was so.

t does s

s. My request to you is that

o your

tifiorla, pursing up her lips, bethought herself whether the demands made upon he