Mrs. Martin turned her frightened eyes on the lady. "Maggie isn't the real daughter of a tradesman," she said then. "She is only the stepdaughter. Her own father was"---- "Yes," said Aneta, "we all know what her own father was--a splendid man, one of the makers of our Empire. We are all proud of her own father, and we do not see for a moment why Maggie should not live up to the true circumstances of her birth, and I have come here to-day, Mrs. Martin, to ask you to help me. If you and your husband come to Aylmer House there will be no help, for Maggie will certainly have to leave the school." "Of course, and the sooner the better," said Lady Lysle. "But if you will help us, and prevent your husband from coming to our school to-morrow, there is no reason whatever why she shouldn't stay at the school. Even her expenses can be paid from quite another source." Mrs. Martin looked intensely nervous. A bright spot of color came into her left cheek. Her right cheek was deadly pale. "I--I cannot help it," she said. "I never meant Bo-peep to go; I never wished him to go. But he said, 'Little-sing, I will go'--I--I forgot myself--of course you don't understand. He is a very good husband to me, but he and Maggie never get on." "I am sure they don't," said Aneta with fervor. "Never," continued Mrs. Martin. "I got on with her only with difficulty before I married my present dear husband. I am not at all ashamed of his being a grocer. He gives me comforts, and is fond of me, and I have a much better time with him than I had in shabby, dirty lodgings at Shepherd's Bush. I don't want him to go to that school to-morrow; but I thought it right to let Maggie know he was coming, for, all the same, go he will. When James puts his foot down he is a very determined man." "This is altogether a most unpleasant interview," said Lady Lysle, "and I have only come here at my niece's request.--Perhaps, Aneta, we can go now." "Not yet, auntie darling.--Mrs. Martin, Maggie and I had a long talk yesterday, and will you put this matter into my hands?" "Good heavens! what next?" murmured Lady Lysle to herself. "Will you give me your husband's address, and may I go to see him?" "You mean the--the--shop?" said Mrs. Martin. "I don't go into that shop!" said Lady Lysle. "Yes, I mean the shop," said Aneta. "I want to go and see him there." "Oh, he will be so angry, and I am really terrified of him when he is angry." "But think how much more angry he will be if you don't give me that address, and things happen to-morrow which you little expect. Oh! please trust me." Aneta said a few more words, and in the end she was in possession of that address at Shepherd's Bush where Martin the grocer's flourishing shop was to be found. "Thank you so very much, Mrs. Martin. I don't think you will ever regret this," said the girl. Lady Lysle bowed to the wife of the grocer as she went out, but Aneta took her hand.