It was this feeling and not the wish to ask advice--she had no desire whatever for that--that led her to speak to her uncle of what had taken place.

She wished to speak to some one; she should feel more natural, more human, and her uncle, for this purpose, presented himself in a more attractive light than either her aunt or her friend Henrietta.

Her cousin of course was a possible confidant; but she would have had to do herself violence to air this special secret to Ralph.

So the next day, after breakfast, she sought her occasion.

Her uncle never left his apartment till the afternoon, but he received his cronies, as he said, in his dressing-room.