'Finella is young, and does not know her own heart,' he resumed; 'besides, I believe it is enough generally to recommend a girl to marry a certain man, for her to set her face against him unreasoningly. But I think--and hope--that our Finella is different from the common run of girls.' 'Not in contriving, perhaps, to fall in love with the wrong man.' 'You mean that young fellow Hammersley?' 'Yes; I must own to having most grave suspicions,' replied Lady Fettercairn. 'She is a Melfort, and as such has no notion of being coerced.' Lady Fettercairn thought of Lennard and Flora MacIan and remained silent, remembering that _he_ too, the disowned and the outcast, was a genuine Melfort in the same sense. CHAPTER XVI. A THREAT. To Finella, so pure in mind and proud in spirit, it was fast becoming utterly intolerable to find herself in the false and degraded position the craft of Shafto had placed her in with regard to so honourable a man as Vivian Hammersley; and the more she brooded over it, the deeper became her loathing of the daring trickster--a sentiment which she was, by the force of circumstances, compelled to veil and conceal from her guardians: hence, the more bitter her thoughts, the more passionate her longing for an explanation, and more definite her wishes. Hammersley, though still a fact, seemed somehow to have passed out of her life, and thus she often said in a kind of wailing way to Dulcie: 'Oh, that he had never come here, or that I had never known or met him, in London or anywhere else! Then I should not have felt what it is to love and to lose him!' 'Pardon me, darling, but take courage,' replied Dulcie, caressing her. 'I have written to Florian at last, and his reply will tell us all about Captain Hammersley, and how he is looking, and so forth; though Florian, in a position so subordinate, cannot be in his confidence, of course.' She did not add that she had in her letter told the whole story of the false position in which Finella had been placed, lest the latter's pride might revolt at such interference in her affairs, however well and kindly meant; and lest the letter--if it proved disappointing, by her lover remaining jealous, suspicious, obdurate, or contemptuous, if Florian ventured to speak on the subject, which she scarcely hoped--should prove a useless humiliation to Finella, who longed eagerly as herself for the reply. But Dulcie prayed in her simple heart that good might come of it before the evil which she so nervously dreaded fell upon herself; for Shafto had made such humble apologies for his conduct to her on the day he interrupted her when feeding the swans, that, though she gave him her hand in token, not of forgiveness but of truce, she feared he was concocting fresh mischief; for soon after, encouraged thereby, he began his old persecution, but carefully and in secret again.