Page:The time spirit; a romantic tale (IA timespiritromant00snaiiala).pdf/160

 "Tell me, Mrs. Sanderson," said the younger woman in a tone of ice, "is Miss Lawrence a connection of yours?"

"My niece, my lady," said Harriet, an odd tremor in her voice.

"A daughter, I presume, of your sister and her husband?"

"That is so, my lady." Harriet's tone was slowly deepening to that of her questioner.

"Of course, the matter will have to be mentioned at once to my father. And I'm afraid the consequences cannot fail to be serious. You must feel that it is very wrong to have connived at such a state of things."

Harriet's reply, brief but considered, made with a sudden flush of color and a lighted eye, was a cold denial. It was a short but painful scene, and its three witnesses would gladly have been spared it. Lady Muriel had lost a little of her poise. In spite of her "breadth" she was simply horrified by her discovery. She could not believe that Harriet spoke the truth. And the cunning, the duplicity, the chicane of a retainer who had held a privileged position for so many years filled her with an inward fury that was almost beyond control.

"One could not have believed it to be possible," she said, in a voice that trembled ominously. And having discharged that Parthian bolt, she withdrew with the People's Candidate in order to canvass the next house in the street.

VI

Such a departure left consternation in its train. After a moment of complete silence, Eliza burst into a sudden