“Where do you pick up your acquaintance, Miss Desmond?” he said. “I should scarcely have expected to meet this lady here.” “This lady is my husband’s cousin,” answered Maude, who had entered the room while he was speaking; “and I do not know any one who has a better right to be here. What is the matter, Susy darling?” Roderick Lowther’s heart was stirred faintly by the sound of that familiar name--the name which he had whispered so often beside a grey wintry sea, under a wintry sky, in the desolate region which had been brightened for him by his discarded wife’s innocence and love. “There is nothing that can be spoken of here,” Susan answered; “I have met some one whom I never expected to see again. I will wait till my cousin comes back. I will say no more till then.” “But, good gracious me!” exclaimed Miss Grunderson, “I’m not going to be treated in this sort of way. What does it all mean, Roderick? That lady starts up all of a sudden, and calls you her husband, and then says she’ll wait till her cousin comes home. I can’t be expected to wait till her cousin comes home. I can’t take matters so coolly. With my trousseau ordered, and all! I must and will have an explanation!” “You shall, Rosa; but, for mercy’s sake, hold your tongue. There is some infernal mistake. You had better go home; never mind about the earrings to-day. If this lady mistakes me for some one she knows, or has a claim upon, I have no doubt I shall be able to demonstrate her mistake, if I can talk to her for a few minutes quietly. And now let me take you to your carriage, Rosa.” Miss Grunderson would have resisted such a summary way of disposing of her and her wrongs; but Roderick Lowther was firm. He led her down-stairs, and he put her into her carriage, and he sent her home as coolly as if she had been a packet of dry goods consigned to his temporary care, to be sent on to Mr. Grunderson. “Awkward,” he muttered, as he went back to the house; “but things always do happen awkwardly just when a fellow fancies he’s swimming with the tide all in his favour.” He looked very grave as he went to Mrs. Tredethlyn’s morning-room to demand an interview with Susan; but he looked a great deal more grave as he left the house after that interview and made his way back to his brother’s lodgings. He found Harcourt sitting moodily by the empty fireplace, the slim foreign bottle on the table by his side, and a cigar in his mouth. “What is the matter with you?” asked the younger brother, listlessly, as he perceived the scowl upon his senior’s face. “There is this much the matter with me,” answered Roderick; “I trusted a fellow to help me in a delicate business, and I’ve reason to think that he took advantage of my confidence to get me into a dilemma that it will take me all my life to get out of. I have seen Susan Turner to-day.” “Indeed!”