There was a certain count whose name had come to be mingled with hers in a way that was, to say the least of it, very unfortunate.

Sir Hugh Clavering had declared, in Mrs.Clavering's hearing, though but little disposed in general to make any revelations to any of the family at the rectory, "that he did not intend to take his sister-in-law's part.

She had made her own bed, and she must lie upon it.

She had known what Lord Ongar was before she had married him, and the fault was her own." So much Sir Hugh had said, and, in saying it, had done all that in him lay to damn his sister-in-law's fair fame.

Harry Clavering, little as he had lived in the world during the last twelve months, still knew that some people told a different story.