"Eh, what's that?" said the old lady. "Hum! Bernard, your grandfather was a silly fool--no, I won't say that--but he was an upsetting peacock. The idea of not thinking Alice good enough for you!" "She is too good for me." "I quite agree with you," said the lawyer, laughing; "but you see, Miss Berengaria, it was not the personality of Miss Malleson that Sir Simon objected to, but her----" "I know--I know," said the old lady tartly. "Bless the man, does he take me for an idiot." She sat down. "I'm a fool." Everyone looked at one another when Miss Berengaria made this startling announcement. As a rule, she called others fools, but she was chary of applying the term to herself. She looked round. "I am a fool," she announced again. "Alice, come and sit down. I have something to say that should have been said long ago." "What is it?" asked the girl, seating herself beside the old lady. Miss Berengaria, a rare thing for her, began to weep. "The air here is too strong for me," she said in excuse. "All the same, I must speak out even through my tears, silly woman that I am! Oh, if I hadn't been too proud to explain to that dead peacock"--she meant the late baronet--"all this would have been avoided." "Do you mean my grandfather would have consented to the marriage?" "I mean nothing of the sort, Bernard, so don't interrupt," said Miss Berengaria, sharply, "but I'm a fool. Bernard, I beg your pardon." "If you would come to the point, Miss Plantagenet, and----" "I am coming to it, Durham," she said quickly. "Don't worry me. It is this way: Sir Simon objected to Alice because he knew nothing of her parentage." "I know nothing myself," said Alice, sadly. "Well then, I intend to tell you now. You are perfectly well born and you have every right to the name of Malleson, though why Sir Simon thought you hadn't I can't say. Give me your hand, my love, and I'll tell you who you are as concisely as possible." Alice did as she was told, and Miss Plantagenet began in a hurry, as though anxious to get over a disagreeable task. Durham and Bernard listened with all their ears. Miss Berengaria noticed this. "You needn't look so eager," she said tartly; "the story is dull. Alice, do you remember that I told you I was engaged once to a wicked fool?" "Yes--you said----" "There's no need to repeat what I said. I am quite sure it isn't edifying. I have far too long a tongue, but old age will be garrulous--drat it! Well then, Alice, that man who said he loved me and lied was your grandfather. He married a girl with money, for then I had only my looks, and I _was_ handsome," said Miss Berengaria, emphatically; "but George--his name was George and I've hated it ever since--didn't want beauty or brains. He wanted money, and got it, along with a weeping idiot whose heart he broke. I swore never to look on a man again, and when my father died I came to live at The Bower. But I heard that George's wife had died, leaving him one daughter----"