that in this new friend she had found a woman whose wishes and
aspirations for her would be those which her mother had
entertained.

But Mrs Finn was much troubled in her mind, thinking that it was
her duty to tell the story to the Duke. It was not only the
daughter who had trusted her, but the father also; and the
father's confidence had been not only the first but by far the
holier of the two. And the question was one so important to the
girl's future happiness! There could be no doubt that the peril
of her present position was very great.

'Mary,' she said one morning, when the fortnight was nearly at an
end, 'your father ought to know all this. I should feel that I had
betrayed him were I to go away leaving him in ignorance.'

'You do not mean to say that you will tell?' said the girl,
horrified at the idea of such treachery.

'I wish that I could induce you to do so. Every day that he is
kept in the dark is an injury to you.'

'I am doing nothing. What harm can come? It is not as though I was
seeing him every day.'

'This harm will come; your father of course will know that you
became engaged to Mr Tregear in Italy, and that a fact so
important to him has been kept back from him.'

'If there is anything in that, the evil has been done already. Of