“The Lady has done it this time,” observed the younger brother, sitting on the arm of an easy-chair before the fire. “Has the new governess come?” asked Lionel absently. “Yes, and I rather think she has come to stay for life. Avoid looking at her if you meet her, my dear chap. The Gorgon wasn’t in it with her. She would turn a Bengal tiger to stone.” Lionel looked at his brother with curiosity, for he had not often heard him express himself so strongly. “What’s the matter with her?” “I forget all the things,” answered Claude; “but I know that she has a big blotch on one cheek and a red nose, and she looks like a skinned hare, and she’s got a hump on one shoulder, and she’s lame, and----” “Good gracious!” Lionel’s jaw had positively dropped at the description, and he was staring at his brother in a most unusual way. “I forgot,” continued Claude: “one eye wanders----” “I say,” interrupted Lionel, in a tone of irritation, now that his first astonishment had subsided, “it’s not good enough, you know. My credulity was badly injured when I was young. What’s the new governess’s name?” “Miss Scott,” answered Claude; “and I really don’t think I’ve exaggerated. The Governor is awfully depressed about it. The worst of the thing is that she is turning out to be the long-sought treasure, and the Lady is in the seventh heaven.” “It’s very odd,” observed Lionel thoughtfully. “Is there any one stopping?” “The Trevelyans are coming to-morrow, and I believe there is to be a big end party this Saturday.” “What Trevelyans?” asked Lionel. “Is it the mad lot, or their ballooning cousins?” “The balloonists,” answered Claude. “They are quite as crazy as the others, though.” “I think I prefer them to the mad ones, myself. The Lincolnshire ones make me rather nervous. I always expect to hear that another of the family has had to be locked up, and it might happen to be the one I had just been talking to. I suppose Miss Scott doesn’t come to dinner, does she?” “Rather not!” The two brothers went down together, and during dinner Lionel, who still distrusted Claude’s description of the new governess, asked questions about her of the others, and though no one said anything very definite before the servants, the fact that she was lame and far from good-looking was made quite clear to him, as also that his mother was thoroughly satisfied with her services. Indeed, Lady Jane enlarged upon the subject in a way that was almost tiresome. Lionel was not usually the most punctual member of the household, but on the following morning he was the first in the breakfast-room, and was standing before the fire reading a newspaper, when the door opened quietly and Miss Scott entered alone, closing it after her. She came forward towards Lionel with her beginning of a smile, as if they had met before. He held out his hand [Illustration: “‘Ellen!’ he cried, ‘in Heaven’s name, what has happened?’” ]