continual eyesore. But I have arranged. Next week she leaves Deepley
Walls for the Continent, and if I never see her face again, so much the
better for both of us."

"With all due respect to your ladyship, it seems to me that your tone is
far more bitter than the occasion demands. What may be the relationship
between Miss Hope and yourself it is quite impossible for me to say;
but that there is a tie of some sort between you I cannot for a moment
doubt."

"And pray, Major Strickland, what reason may you have for believing that
a tie of any kind exists between this young person and the mistress of
Deepley Walls?"

"I will take my stand on one point: on the extraordinary resemblance
which this child bears to--"

"To whom, Major Strickland?"

"To one who lies buried in Elvedon churchyard. You know whom I mean.
Such a likeness is far too remarkable to be the result of accident."

"I deny the existence of any such likeness," said Lady Chillington,
vehemently. "I deny it utterly. You are the victim of your own
disordered imagination. Likeness, forsooth!" She laughed a bitter,
contemptuous laugh, and seemed to think that she had disposed of the
question for ever.

"Come here, child," said the Major, taking me kindly by the hand, and
leading me close up to her ladyship. "Look at her, Lady Chillington," he