"This explains why North has not been. He knows too much. Heaven! how is it that a woman can be lost to all that is due to herself, leave alone to those she is supposed to love!" There was an inexpressible bitterness in his tone as he spoke. "But what are you going to do?" "Do!" he said fiercely, but with a tinge of despair in his words; "I'm going to thank Heaven that the man whom I believe to be the soul of honour and manliness has been saved from linking his fate with that of such a woman as Leo Salis." "Oh, Hartley!" cried Mary, "she is our sister." "Yes," he said bitterly; "she is our sister. I shall not forget that." "But what are you going to do, dear?" "What am I going to do?" said Salis, bending down and kissing Mary; "send you to bed to rest and be ready to bear the troubles of another day." "But Leo?" "I am going down to wait till she comes." "And then?" "And then? Ah, what then? What can I do, Mary?" he said despairingly. "You know Leo as well as I do. To speak to her would be waste of breath. There is only one thing I can do." "Yes, dear," said Mary piteously. "Strive hard to preserve your dignity and honour, and mine, in the eyes of the world." "But that letter, Hartley!" "Yes," he said bitterly; "it is too late for that. Well, I must strive. Good heavens! she is only fit to be treated like a wilful child." "Oh, Hartley!" "There, hush! little one," he said tenderly; "we must bear it patiently." "You will wait up till she returns?" "Yes, of course." "And you will not be violent?" "Violent! _Cui bono_? No, Mary; I shall say very little; but she will have to go from here." There was a desolate sound in his voice--a look of misery in his eyes, which brought a sigh from Mary. "Perhaps I ought to go raging up to the Hall, and try and find Tom Candlish," said the curate; "but I don't wish to repeat my last encounter with the scoundrel. It might be worse. There, you are suffering. Go to bed." "But I could not sleep!" "Never mind--lie down. There, I shall say very little to Leo. What I do say to the point shall be in your presence, dear. Good night." "Good night," he repeated, as he walked softly downstairs, and out through the drawing-room into the garden, to see that Leo's window remained open, when he sighed deeply, went back, and sat down to watch for his sister's return. Volume 3, Chapter V. A WAYWARD SISTER. Hartley Salis was not the only watcher. Mary lay with her eyes burning and brain throbbing with contending emotions. She was in agony, for she had to combat, in addition to the horror of the discovery that her sister could be so shameless in her acts, a sensation of gratification that would force itself to the front.