'No, no. That is only nonsense,' he said hurriedly. 'However, love her or love her not, I can keep a corner of my heart for you, Faith. There is another brute after her too, it seems.' 'Of course there is: I expect there are many. Her position in society is above ours, so that it is an unwise course to go troubling yourself more about her.' 'No. If a needy man must be so foolish as to fall in love, it is best to do so where he cannot double his foolishness by marrying the woman.' 'I don't like to hear you talk so slightingly of what poor father did.' Christopher fixed his attention on the supper. That night, late as it was, when Faith was in bed and sleeping, he sat before a sheet of music- paper, neatly copying his composition upon it. The manuscript was intended as an offering to Ethelberta at the first convenient opportunity. * * * * * 'Well, after all my trouble to find out about Ethelberta, here comes the clue unasked for,' said the musician to his sister a few days later. She turned and saw that he was reading the Wessex Reflector. 'What is it?' asked Faith. 'The secret of the true authorship of the book is out at last, and it is Ethelberta of course. I am so glad to have it proved hers.' 'But can we believe--?' 'O yes. Just hear what "Our London Correspondent" says. It is one of the nicest bits of gossip that he has furnished us with for a long time.' 'Yes: now read it, do.' '"The author of 'Metres by E.'"' Christopher began, '"a book of which so much has been said and conjectured, and one, in fact, that has been the chief talk for several weeks past of the literary circles to which I belong, is a young lady who was a widow before she reached the age of eighteen, and is now not far beyond her fourth lustrum. I was additionally informed by a friend whom I met yesterday on his way to the House of Lords, that her name is Mrs. Petherwin--Christian name Ethelberta; and that she resides with her mother-in-law at their house in Exonbury Crescent. She is, moreover, the daughter of the late Bishop of Silchester (if report may be believed), whose active benevolence, as your readers know, left his family in comparatively straitened circumstances at his death. The marriage was a secret one, and much against the wish of her husband's friends, who are wealthy people on all sides. The death of the bridegroom two or three weeks after the wedding led to a reconciliation; and the young poetess was taken to the home which she still occupies, devoted to the composition of such brilliant effusions as those the world has lately been favoured with from her pen."' 'If you want to send her your music, you can do so now,' said Faith.