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Rh Miss Shaw was it expedient he should reveal? Of course, the secret of her wild scheme—a scheme he believed she would never carry out—he was bound to keep. But her flight from Farley, and the rupture with her uncle and aunt, were facts which George might learn at any moment. Perhaps it might be better to give him some inkling of the truth, so far as he knew it. The truth, as he suspected it, was another matter. He was not wholly ignorant of Mrs. William Shaw's proclivities, and he had a general conception of Colonel Wybrowe's character.

He pursed up his mouth, and kept on tapping the points of his fingers gently together, as he stared out of the open window at the grimy face of the old-fashioned houses opposite. He could not see the fair, florid young man's face, who was watching him closely, because George's back was against the window-shutter, and the sunlight did no more than touch the edges of his auburn hair.

"William Shaw does not yet know of his niece's decision," said Mr. Twisden, slowly, after a long pause; "nor of her coming here. She has left his house. So much I may tell you. Into the cause of all this it is not my business to inquire. I am not her guardian. I can only say that I am glad, at any cost, that her marriage with Colonel Wybrowe is at an end—and for ever."

Clever George pondered. What did he mean by at any cost? But George knew his uncle too well to probe further.

"Probably she found out that he wanted to marry her for her money," he said.