"Aye, disgraceful," resumed her father with increasing emphasis. "I fear I must say it, and there's not a person who if he knew all that I know, would not join me in saying it. But Godfrey Stubbs was your husband, and----" "And they shan't dare to speak a word against him--oh, they shan't--they shall not,"--with a face of fire she turned towards him, "and, father, you can't and you mustn't, either; Godfrey----" but she could speak no more for sobbing. "You shall protect his memory, Leonore." And when the carriage drew up beneath the Abbey portico, General Boldero felt that he had accomplished the object for which he had met his daughter, and met her alone. CHAPTER III. SPECULATIONS. "I saw old Brown-boots Boldero at the station to-day," quoth Dr. Humphrey Craig, the doctor of the neighbourhood, as he shook himself out of his greatcoat and wiped the October mist from his beard, within the hall of his comfortable house. "Spick and span as usual, and boots as glossy as if there were no such things as muddy lanes in the world. To be sure he had his carriage to-day, though." "His carriage?" The doctor's cheerful little wife was at once all interest; something in her husband's tone awakened interest. "He was bringing home that poor girl of his." "Leonore? Did you speak to them?" "To him--not to her. We had to stand together on the platform, but I sheered off directly the train came in. He had told me what he was there for." "But you saw Leonore arrive?" "I saw her, yes,--poor black little thing. There seemed nothing of her at all beneath her widow's trappings. Handsome trappings they were too; the furs of a millionairess." "Did she look----?" "Rather miserable and frightened. Scared at seeing her father, I daresay. Bland and civil as the old ruffian is, every one knows how the girls quake before him. There he was, doing the polite, footman in attendance, big carriage outside--all to be taken note of as evidence that Mrs. Godfrey Stubbs was worth it." "You are always down on that poor old man." "Can't help it. I hate him." "I do think you might give him credit for some fatherly feeling." "I don't--not a ha'porth. Fatherly feeling? Bless my soul, I can never forget his face at the time of the marriage; it was simply bursting with greedy exultation, and at what? At getting rid of the poor child to such a high bidder. Stubbs wasn't a bad fellow, but it would have been all the same if he had been. Leonore was chucked at his head----" "Hush--hush!"--Mrs. Craig, with a look of alarm, pointed to the green baize door which shut off the back regions. "You really should be more careful, dear; you can be heard in the kitchen, when you speak so loud."