‘She made the acquaintance of a young man of whose character the less is said the better--picked him up at some reading-room where she used to go in an evening--an _evening_,’ said Mrs. Mallory, in an utterly indescribable tone. ‘She encouraged him to visit her, and he did so repeatedly; he is a socialist, an atheist, and altogether immoral. How far the connection may have gone I cannot pretend to say, but this I know, that Frederick Spenceley, who is not exactly strait-laced----’ ‘No, certainly not.’ ‘Frederick Spenceley declined to make her acquaintance, and took his sister away, and declined to let her converse with her.’ ‘You have this information from a reliable source?’ ‘Perfectly reliable. I am not at liberty to say who told me, but I must say the news exactly agrees with what my own judgment led me to expect. I always said....’ ‘Pardon! No matter what you have always said, or what other people say. I can tell you the truth, not from any second-hand source, but from my own personal knowledge of the circumstances. The young man of whom you have heard such a delightful character was, though he no longer is, one of my own work-people. He is perfectly respectable, and of unstained character. If Frederick Spenceley were one hundredth part--if he could ever become one hundredth part as much of a gentleman as Myles Heywood naturally is, he might congratulate himself. He--Heywood, I mean--is a friend of Miss Blisset’s, and the fact honours both him and her. I have met him at her uncle’s house, and I have shaken hands with him in his own house. He is a man whom I honour and respect very much. So much for that part of your information. For the rest, that Frederick Spenceley refused to make Miss Blisset’s acquaintance--my dear mother, I am surprised that a woman with your knowledge of the world should believe such a story. I happened to be present then, too. Miss Spenceley wished to introduce her brother to Miss Blisset, and the latter declined the acquaintance; I believe she had excellent reasons for doing so. I pitied Miss Spenceley, from my soul, for she is as superior to her blackguard of a brother as heaven is to earth. But--I trust you will see the wisdom of making the best of Miss Blisset, and not the worst, for I shall ask her to be my wife--to-day, if I get the chance, and if not, on the very first opportunity.’ Mrs. Mallory had sat, during this prolonged harangue, drawing deep breaths, but at the last announcement, made with an emphasis unusual to Sebastian, it seemed suddenly to burst upon her, how entirely she had overreached herself, and she rose from her chair very pale; and, but that her pride forbade it, would have burst into tears of mortification. ‘There is no ingratitude like that of a child to a mother,’ said she, in an icy voice. ‘You have done all you could to humiliate me and cross my wishes ever since your return, and now you insult me by seeking out the least----’