present; there too was her own answer of neatly-worded thanks, and, above all, there was her mother, patiently adamant. And the beleaguered garrison, though it knew that the enemy--that friendly enemy--awaited it, went out on a sortie too forlorn to call a hope through the only available gate. Madge sat down in the chair she had occupied before. "You have been asking me a lot of questions, mother," she said, "which bear on Mr. Dundas. I suppose you think or have guessed that something has happened. You are quite right; I think you are always right. He told me this afternoon that he was in love with me." Lady Ellington hardly knew whether she had expected this or not; at any rate she showed no sign of surprise. "What very bad taste," she said, "his telling you, I mean." Madge had given a sudden hopeless giggle of laughter at the first four words of this, before the explanation came. Lady Ellington waited till she had finished. "What did you say to him?" she asked. "I hardly know. I think I said that one or other of us must leave the room." "Very proper; and he?" "He--he asked me whether I hated him for it. And I told him I did not." Then she broke; whether or no it was wiser to be silent she did not pause to consider, for she could not be silent. There must be a crash; a situation of this kind could not adjust itself in passivity, it was mere temporising not to speak at once. "Because I don't hate him," she said, now speaking quickly as if in fear of interruption. "I love him. Oh! I have done my best; if he had never spoken, never let me know that he loved me, I could have gone on, I think, and done what it has been arranged for me to do. Philip knew, you see, that I did not love him like that. I had told him. But I did not know what it was. I almost wish I had never known. But I know; I can't help that now." Whatever Lady Ellington's gospel as regards the best plan on which to conduct life was worth, if weighed as a moral principle, it is quite certain that she acted up to it. She put a paper-knife into the book she had taken up during Madge's aimless wanderings about the room to mark the page of her perusal, and spoke with perfect calmness. "And what do you propose to do?" she asked.