“I see nothing very amusing in the antics of a drunken workman,” said the Countess.  “How you could have left Marian in his care even for a moment I am at a loss to conceive.”

“He was not drunk, indeed,” said Marian.

“Certainly not,” said Jasper, rather indignantly.  “I was walking with him for some time before we met the girls.  You are very pale, Marian.  Have you also a headache?”

“I have been playing tennis all day; and I am quite tired out.”

Soon afterward, when Marian was in bed, and Miss McQuinch, according to a nightly custom of theirs, was seated on the coverlet with her knees doubled up to her chin inside her bedgown, they discussed the adventure very earnestly.

“Dont understand him at all, I confess,” said Elinor, when Marian had related what had passed in the plantation.  “Wasnt it rather rash to make a confidant of him in such a delicate matter?”

“That is what makes me feel so utterly ashamed.  He might have known that I only wanted to do good.  I thought he was so entirely above false delicacy.”

“I dont mean that.  How do you know that the story is true?  You only have it from Mrs. Leith Fairfax’s letter; and she is perhaps the greatest liar in the world.”

“Oh, Nelly, you ought not to talk so strongly about people.  She would never venture to tell me a made-up tale about Marmaduke.”

“In my opinion, she would tell anybody anything for the sake of using her tongue or pen.”

“It is so hard to know what to do.  There was nobody whom I could trust, was there?  Jasper has always been against Marmaduke; and Constance, of course, was out of the question.  There was Auntie, but I did not like to tell her.”

“Because she is an evil-minded old Jezebel, whom no nice woman would talk to on such a subject,” said Elinor, giving the bed a kick with her heel.

“Hush, Nelly.  I am always in terror lest you should say something like that before other people, out of sheer habit.”

“Never fear.  Well, you have done the best you could.  No use regretting what cannot be recalled.  You cannot have the security of conventionality along with the self-respect of sincerity.  By the bye, do you remember that Jasper and his fond mamma and George had a family council after dinner?  You may be sure that George has told them everything.”

“What!  Then my wretched attempt to have Marmaduke warned was useless.  Oh, Nelly, this is too bad.  Do you really think so?  When I told him before dinner what Mrs. Leith Fairfax wrote, he only said he feared it was true, and refused to give me the address.”

“And so threw you back on Conolly.  I am glad the responsibility rests with George.  He knew very well that it was true; for he had only just been telling Jasper.  Jasper told me as much in the plantation.  Master Georgy has no right to be your brother.  He is worse than a dissenter.  Dissenters try to be gentlemen; but George has no misgivings about himself on that score; so he gives his undivided energy to his efforts to be parsonic.  He is an arrant hypocrite.”