"Don't tell me that I have known them for years and never known them rob me!" exclaimed the widow. "They may have robbed me without my knowing it, or they may not have robbed me because I never gave them the opportunity; and they may begin to rob me to-morrow if they get the chance. Look at the Bishop of Northlandshire's butler, who had lived with him thirteen years, and ran away with five hundred pounds' worth of plate in the fourteenth. Look at Sir Harry Hinchliffe's valet, who was such a faithful creature that his master left him an annuity of two hundred a year; which he would have enjoyed very much, no doubt, if he hadn't stripped the house while his benefactor's corpse was lying in it, and had not been transported for life in consequence. Don't talk to me about honesty, Cecil. If Mrs. Krewson is an honest woman, why do her eyes sparkle so when I order a large joint, and why are two quarts of Bisque barely enough for six?" In the autumn Mrs. MacClaverhouse generally retired to some marine retreat unfrequented by cockneys or fashionables, where lodgings were to be had on reasonable terms, and where she could recruit herself and her niece for the winter campaign. "I really don't see why you shouldn't marry well, Cecil,--though Heaven knows what will become of the General's diamond-cut glass when you leave me,--and I sometimes wonder how it is you haven't made a good match before now," said the widow. "I think it's that cold manner of yours that keeps the men off; and then you don't talk slang, as some of the women do nowadays. You're not dashing, you know, my love; but you are very handsome, and elegant, and accomplished; and if any one of those flippant minxes can sing Rossini's music or write an inventory of china as well as you, I'll eat her--pearl-powder and all," added Mrs. Mac, with a wry face. It was very true that as yet no pretender of any importance had appeared for Lady Cecil Chudleigh's hand. It might be that lovers were kept off by the cold reserve of her manners, the shrinking dislike to take any prominent part in society which is apt to affect those whom poverty has always kept more or less at a disadvantage, or it might be in consequence of that panic in the matrimonial market of which we have heard so much in these latter days.