‘Then did you send her this letter?’

‘I?’ said Arthurine, staring at it, with her eyes at their fullest extent.  ‘I! fifty pounds!  Mr. Foxholm!  What does it mean?’

‘Then you never wrote that order?’

‘No! no!  How should I?’

‘That is not your writing?’

‘No, not that.’

‘Look at the signature.’

’Oh! oh! oh!’—­and she dropped into a chair.  ’The horrible man!  That’s the autograph I gave him this afternoon.’

‘You are sure?’

’Quite; for my pen spluttered in the slope of the A. Has she gone and given it to him?’

‘No.  She brought it to me, and set the policeman to watch him.’

’What a dear, good woman!  Shall you send him to prison, Admiral Merrifield?  What can be done to him?’ said Arthurine, not looking at all as if she would like to abrogate capital punishment.

‘Well, I had been thinking,’ said the Admiral.  ’You see he did not get it, and though I could commit him for endeavouring to obtain money on false pretences, I very much doubt whether the prosecution would not be worse for you than for him.’

‘That is very kind of you, Admiral!’ exclaimed the mother.  ’It would be terribly awkward for dear Arthurine to stand up and say he cajoled her into giving her autograph.  It might always be remembered against her!’

‘Exactly so,’ said the Admiral; ’and perhaps there may be another reason for not pushing the matter to extremity.  The man is a stranger here, I believe.’

‘He has been staying at Bonchamp,’ said Mrs. Arthuret.  ’It was young Mr. Mytton who brought him over this afternoon.’

’Just so.  And how did he come to be aware that Mrs. Rudden owed you any money?’

There was a pause, then Arthurine broke out—­

’Oh, Daisy and Pansy can’t have done anything; but they were all three there helping me mark the tennis-courts when the message came.’

‘Including the brother?’

‘Yes.’

’He is a bad fellow, and I would not wish to shield him in any way, but that such a plot should be proved against him would be a grievous disgrace to the family.’

‘I can’t ever feel about them as I have done,’ said Arthurine, in tears.  ’Daisy and Pansy said so much about poor dear Fred, and every one being hard on him, and his feeling my good influence—­and all the time he was plotting this against me, with my chalk in his hand marking my grass,’ and she broke down in child-like sobs.

The mortification was terrible of finding her pinnacle of fame the mere delusion of a sharper, and the shock of shame seemed to overwhelm the poor girl.

‘Oh, Admiral!’ cried her mother, ’she cannot bear it.  I know you will be good, and manage it so as to distress her as little as possible, and not have any publicity.’

‘1 will do my best,’ said the Admiral.  ’I will try and get a confession out of him, and send him off, though it is a pity that such a fellow should get off scot-free.’