"At least it shall not say," responded Lady Alice, "that I believe my husband guilty of murder. I have come back to prevent _that_." Miss Brooke looked at her doubtfully. She was not a person of very quick perceptions. "You mean," she said at last, "that you have come back--because----" "_Because_ he was accused of murder," said Lady Alice, clearly, "and I choose to show the world that I do not believe it." And Lesley, entering from the library, heard the words, and stood transfixed for a moment with pure delight. Then she sprang forward, fell on her knees before her mother, and embraced her with such fervor that Miss Brooke put up her eye-glasses and gazed in surprise. "Mother! my own dearest mother! You do believe in him, then! and you have come to show us that you do! Oh! how delighted he will be when he knows!" A little color showed itself in Lady Alice's delicate face. "He does know," she whispered, almost with the coyness of a girl. "And he _was_ delighted, was he not? It would be such a comfort to him--just now when he wants every kind of comfort. Oh, mamma, it is so good of you, and I am so glad. Aunty Sophy, aren't you glad, too?" Lady Alice tried to stifle this naive utterance, but it would not be repressed, and Aunt Sophy had to rise to the occasion as best she could, with rather a grim face, she rose from her seat upon the sofa and advanced towards her brother's wife, holding out a very reluctant hand. "I appreciate your motives, Lady Alice, and I see that your conduct may be of service to my brother." Then she relapsed into a more colloquial tone. "But how on earth you mean to live in this part of London, I'm sure I can't imagine. No doubt it seems rather smoky and grimy to you after Mayfair and Belgravia." "London is generally a little smoky," said Lady Alice, smiling in spite of herself. "Thank you, Sophy: I thought you would do me justice." And the hands of the two women met in a friendlier grasp than ever in the days of yore. "I must see about your room," said Miss Brooke, practically. It was her way of holding out the olive branch. "You would like to be near Lesley, I suppose. We shall try to make you comfortable, but, of course, you won't expect the luxuries of your own home here." "I shall be very comfortable, I am sure," said Lady Alice. "What, does she mean by talking in that tone?" cried Lesley, hotly when Doctor Sophy had left the room. "It was almost insulting!" "No, my darling, no. It is only a memory of old times when I was--exacting and dissatisfied. Yes, I see that I must have seemed so, then. I had not had much experience in those days; and then your father was not a man of substance as he seems to be now," said Lady Alice, inspecting the room, with a half-smile. The smile died quickly away, however, and was succeeded by a sad look, and a sigh. "Ah, poor Caspar!" "He will be home in a day or two. Everybody says so." "I trust so, dearest. And I will stay with--you till he comes home."