"You should have said more then. You should have come and told me the whole story. Tell it me now." It was a proof of Flossy's curious power over certain natures that Sabina Meldreth, wild and undisciplined as she was, seldom thought of resisting her will when in her very presence. She sat down on a chair that Mrs. Vane pointed out to her, and recounted, in rapid and not ill-chosen words, what had passed in her mother's room in the presence of the Rector and of Enid Vane. Flossy listened silently, tapping her lips from time to time with her fan. When the story was ended, she turned on her visitor with a terrible flash of her usually sleepy eyes. "You fool," she said; without however raising her voice--"you fool! You have known this all these months, and have never made your way to me to tell it! How was I to know that the matter was so important? How was I to suspect? I guessed something, of course; but not this! Why, Sabina Meldreth, we are at the mercy of that child's discretion! She has us in her hands--she can crush us when she pleases! Heavens and earth--and to think that I did not know!" "You might have known," said Sabina sullenly. "I've been to the house more than once. I've written and said that I wanted to see you. I don't think it's me that's been the fool." But the last sentence was uttered almost in a whisper. "No, I have been careless--I have been to blame!" said Flossy, a feverish spot of color showing itself in her white cheeks. "So she knows--she knows! That is why she looks at me so strangely; that is why she avoids me and will hardly speak to me. I understand her now." "Maybe," said Sabina, "she thought mother was raving, or didn't understand her aright." "No, no; she understood--she believes it. But why has she kept silence? She hates me, and she might have ruined me--she might have secured Beechfield for herself by this time! What a little idiot she must be!" Mrs. Vane was thinking aloud rather than addressing Sabina; but that young woman generally had an answer ready, and was not disposed to be ignored. "Miss Vane's fond of her uncle," she said drily, "and did not want perhaps to vex him. Besides"--her voice dropped suddenly--"they tell me she's fond of the child." Flossy did not seem to hear; she was revolving other matters in her mind. "Do you think," she said presently; "that Miss Enid has told the Rector? She has seen a good deal of him lately." "No, I don't; I should have heard of it before now if she had," replied Sabina bluntly. "He don't mince matters; and he's got it into his head that I ought to be reformed, and that I've something on my mind. That's why I want to get to Whitminster." "Go farther away than Whitminster," said Mrs. Vane suddenly; "go to London, and I'll give you the money you ask--two hundred pounds a year."