"I'll tell uncle Roger and Gerald to-morrow," he thought. "Of course they will ask for proof. That means a journey to Peckton. Confound other people's affairs!" George's surmise was right. Neaera Witt had spent the first half-hour after his departure in a manner fully as heart-rending as he had imagined. Everything was going so well. Gerald was so charming, and life looked, at last, so bright, and now came this! But Gerald was to dine with her, and there was not much time to waste in crying. She dried her eyes, and doctored them back into their lustre, and made a wonderful toilette. Then she entertained Gerald, and filled him with delight all a long evening. And at eleven o'clock, just as she was driving him out of his paradise, she said, "Your cousin George was here to-day." "Ah, was he? How did you get on with him?" Neaera had brought her lover his hat. He needed a strong hint to move him. But she put the hat down, and knelt beside Gerald for a minute or two in silence. "You look sad, darling," said he. "Did you and George quarrel?" "Yes--I---- It's very dreadful." "Why, what, my sweet?" "No, I won't tell you now. He shan't say I got hold of you first, and prepossessed your mind." "What in the world is wrong, Neaera?" "You will hear, Gerald, soon. But you shall hear it from him. I will not--no, I will not be the first. But, Gerald dear, you will not believe anything against me?" "Does George say anything against you?" Neaera threw her arms round his neck. "Yes," she whispered. "Then let him take care what it is. Neaera, tell me." "No, no, no! He shall tell you first." She was firm; and Gerald went away, a very mass of amazement and wrath. But Neaera said to herself, when she was alone, "I think that was right. But, oh dear, oh dear! what a fuss about"--she paused, and added--"nothing!" And even if it were not quite nothing, if it were even as much as a pair of shoes, the effect did threaten to be greatly out of proportion to the cause. Old Dawkins, and the fussy clerk, and the fat policeman could never have thought of such a coil as this, or surely, in defiance of all the laws of the land, they would have let that nameless damsel go. CHAPTER IV. A SERPENT IN EDEN.