“What is the matter, _ma mère!_” inquired he tenderly, when, not without the exercise of some address--for Sir Richard was always hospitable, and (especially in the absence of his brother) both gracious and attentive to all guests--Arthur and my Lady had managed to get an hour to themselves in the boudoir. “You look very pale and anxious.” “Yes, Arthur, I have enough to make me so. Walter has secretly made Rose Aynton his wife. Ah! you pity me, I see, and perhaps him also. Do not condole with me, however. I have sent for you hither to help me to make the best-----Alas, alas, you would not have believed it of my Walter, would you?” And my Lady, touched by the sympathising look and manner of the honest young fellow, burst into the first “good cry” which she had permitted to herself since the calamity had been discovered; for when confiding the circumstance to Letty, it had been her duty to bear up, and when alone, a still more serious anxiety consumed her. Even now, her emotion, though violent, was soon over, and the indulgence in it seemed to have done her good. “Pardon me, Arthur,” said she, with one of her old smiles; “I won't be foolish any more.” And then, after narrating matters with which we are acquainted, she laid before him, as concisely as she could, what funds at her own disposal could be made available to form an income for the young couple, in addition to the interest which Walter's fortune of five thousand pounds or so, into the possession of which he would come in some eighteen months, would yield. She little knew that on that very night--for it was the eve of the Derby Day--the unworthy boy, for whom she was making such sacrifices, was about to risk and lose more than a third of his patrimony, and that upon the next day the remainder was doomed to go, and much more with it. “But this will pinch you, _ma mere_,” reasoned Arthur kindly, “and narrow your own already somewhat scanty revenue sadly. Sir Richard will come into a very fine rent-roll in June, beside thousands----” “But can we ask him to help Walter and _his wife?_ And could Walter take it, even if his brother were generous enough to offer it?” “Sir Richard is quite capable of such magnanimity, _ma mere_, unless I am much mistaken in his character. He would not like to see his brother--even were he but a Lisgard, let alone his so near kith and kin--in a position that would be discreditable to the family; while if one has really loved a woman, one surely does not wish to see her poor and struggling, simply because she has preferred some one else. As for Walter's accepting the help which his brother can so well spare--it may be a little bitter--but, in my opinion, that would be far preferable to receiving what would impoverish his mother. The arrangements you propose would leave you but three hundred pounds a year.” “Yes,” answered my Lady hastily, “I require that for a purpose, else half the sum would easily suffice my present needs.”