“I think not--I hope not! There was very little amusement in Heyst, and this girl, and the people with whom she is now staying--a Baron and Baroness Gobelli, they call themselves--were amongst the visitors to the Lion d’Or. Miss Leyton is rather a stickler for the proprieties, and used to refuse to walk out with Ralph alone in the evenings, and I was too much occupied with my poor darling baby to accompany them,” said Margaret, in a faltering voice, “so Ralph took to going to the Baroness’s private rooms instead, and became intimate with Miss Brandt!” “You acknowledge then, that he _was_ intimate with her!” “I think he must have been--because it appears that he had agreed to join their party at Brussels, when--when--my great trouble obliged him to return to England with us instead.” “Did you know this young lady, Mrs. Pullen?” “I did, and at one time I was rather intimate with her, that is, before the Baroness took her up, when she passed almost all her time with them.” “She is, I suppose, very attractive in person?” “O! dear no, not at all!” cried Margaret, with a woman’s dull appreciation of the charms of one of her own sex, “she has fine eyes, and what men would, I suppose, call a good figure, but no complexion and an enormous mouth. Not at all pretty, but nice-looking at times,--that is all!” “Clever?” said Pennell, interrogatively. “I do not think so! She had just come out of a Convent school and was utterly unused to society. But she has a very good voice and plays well on the mandoline!” “Ladies are not always the best judges of their own sex,” remarked Anthony, turning to Doctor Phillips, “what do _you_ say, Doctor? Had you an opportunity of appraising Miss Brandt’s beauties and accomplishments for yourself?” “I would rather say nothing, Mr. Pennell,” replied the Doctor. “The fact is, I knew her parents in the West Indies, and could never believe in anything good coming from such a stock. Whatever the girl may be, she inherits terrible proclivities, added to black blood. She is in point of fact a quadroon, and not fit to marry into any decent English family!” “O! dear!” exclaimed Mr. Pennell laconically. “And how do you expect me to help you?” he enquired, after a pause. “I want you to see the Baroness, or Miss Brandt, and tell them that this girl must cease all communication with Captain Pullen,” said Margaret, “tell them that he is engaged to marry Miss Leyton--that the marriage is fixed to take place next spring, and that the Walthamstowe family will be excessively annoyed if any scandal of this sort occurs to break it off.” “Do they not know that such an engagement exists?”