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328 or heard from her lover. He coupled this with her absence on plea of indisposition, and at once drew the inference that they had met. Here chance befriended him. One of his attendants had found no little favour in the eyes of Alice, who expressed her suspicions that her mistress had some secret correspondence, for two reasons; first, to satisfy a naturally communicative temper—all common people are communicative: and secondly, in hopes of gaining such assistance as might ultimately gratify her own curiosity, now most uncomfortably excited.

A thread will guide through a labyrinth, and Buckingham soon discovered that his rival was one whose pretensions militated alike against his interest and his love. The fair manors of Evelyn were now his own, and so they should remain; and if those of Avonleigh could be added to them, they should not be lost for want of exertion on his part. The lady herself went for something; he decidedly preferred her to Lord Fairfax's daughter. The wealth which might pass as quite a minor consideration with the one would be needed as the only excuse for the other. He learnt that Major Johnstone's funeral was to take place that night, and that Robert Evelyn would undoubtedly be there, he accordingly applied to Lord Avonleigh,