She stood right before Mrs Bellingham.

"How is he, madam ?" Mrs Bellingham was for a moment surprised at the white apparition which seemed to rise out of the ground.

But her quick, proud mind understood it all in an instant.

This was the girl, then, whose profligacy had led her son astray; had raised up barriers in the way of her favourite scheme of his marriage with Miss Duncombe; nay, this was the real cause of his illness, his mortal danger at this present time, and of her bitter, keen anxiety.

If, under any circumstances, Mrs Bellingham could have been guilty of the ill-breeding of not answering a question, it was now; and for a moment she was tempted to pass on in silence.