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294 "I'll enquire of Mr. Loder when he returns, or, if it is at all pressing, write to him—poste restante—and get the girl's address, if you wish to communicate with her."

"Oh! no," said Anthony, "I only enquired for my own satisfaction; it really is of no consequence." If Amy Staunton was so well provided for, there was no necessity for his ripping up old sores.

It was with a lighter heart that he left the Palladium office. He had got the information he wished; he had not betrayed himself, and he did not need to do anything. He did not tell Edith anything about the information he had received, because there was no saying what use she might make of it; but on one occasion, when he was at Lady Gower's, now an old woman, but as fond of society and of dress and amusement as she had ever been, he heard her mention the name of Gerald Staunton with pity, but yet with a sort of liking too. She explained to Anthony the circumstances which palliated his mother's conduct, and dwelt upon the fact that it was his apparently dying state that had made Lady Evelyn hasten to Gerald Staunton, and compromise herself so that it was necessary for her to marry him. Lady Gower, on Anthony's communicating to her the information he had received with regard to his