had heard much of Lilian from their common friend, Mr. Vigors; she longed
to embrace so charming a niece. Then followed the invitation and the
postscript. The postscript ran thus, so far as I can remember:--

"Whatever my own grief at my irreparable bereavement, I am no egotist;
I keep my sorrow to myself. You will find some pleasant guests at my
house, among others our joint connection, young Ashleigh Sumner."

"Woman's postscripts are proverbial for their significance," said
Mrs. Poyntz, when I had concluded the letter and laid it on the table;
"and if I did not at once show you this hypocritical effusion, it was
simply because at the name Ashleigh Sumner its object became transparent,
not perhaps to poor Anne Ashleigh nor to innocent Lilian, but to my
knowledge of the parties concerned, as it ought to be to that shrewd
intelligence which you derive partly from nature, partly from the insight
into life which a true physician cannot fail to acquire. And if I know
anything of you, you would have romantically said, had you seen the letter
at first, and understood its covert intention, 'Let me not shackle the
choice of the woman I love, and to whom an alliance so coveted in the eyes
of the world might, if she were left free, be proffered.'"

"I should not have gathered from the postscript all that you see in it;
but had its purport been so suggested to me, you are right, I should have
so said. Well, and as Mr. Margrave tells me that you informed him that I
have a rival, I am now to conclude that the rival is Mr. Ashleigh Sumner?"

"Has not Mrs. Ashleigh or Lilian mentioned him in writing to you?"

"Yes, both; Lilian very slightly, Mrs. Ashleigh with some praise, as a
young man of high character, and very courteous to her."