'You know what that 's equivalent to? But, if you like, I will not speak
to her till you, have left us.'

'Instantly,' cried Evan. 'Now-to-night! I would not have her live a
minute in a false estimate of me.'

Had Lady Jocelyn's intellect been as penetrating as it was masculine, she
would have taken him and turned him inside out in a very short time; for
one who would bear to see his love look coldly on him rather than endure
a minute's false estimate of his character, and who could yet stoop to
concoct a vile plot, must either be mad or simulating the baseness for
some reason or other. She perceived no motive for the latter, and she
held him to be sound in the head, and what was spoken from the mouth she
accepted. Perhaps, also, she saw in the complication thus offered an
escape for Rose, and was the less inclined to elucidate it herself. But
if her intellect was baffled, her heart was unerring. A man proved
guilty of writing an anonymous letter would not have been allowed to
stand long in her room. She would have shown him to the door of the
house speedily; and Evan was aware in his soul that he had not fallen
materially in her esteem. He had puzzled and confused her, and partly
because she had the feeling that this young man was entirely trustworthy,
and because she never relied on her feelings, she let his own words
condemn him, and did not personally discard him. In fact, she was a
veritable philosopher. She permitted her fellows to move the world on as
they would, and had no other passions in the contemplation of the show
than a cultured audience will usually exhibit.

'Strange,--most strange! I thought I was getting old!' she said, and
eyed the culprit as judges generally are not wont to do. 'It will be a
shock to Rose. I must tell you that I can't regret it. I would not have