“This is the worst part of the business to you,” said Miss Payne, when they had reached home and sat down to a late tea together.  “You look like a ghost, or as if you had seen one.  You will make yourself ill, and really there is no need to do anything of the kind.  Those children have a mother who is very well off.  I always thought it frightfully imprudent of you to take those boys even when you had plenty of money.  Now, of course, when it is impossible for you to keep them, it is a bitter wrench to part, but—­”

“But I am not sure that we must part,” interrupted Katherine, eagerly.  “Should my cousin be induced to forego his claims upon me for the income I have expended, and I can find some means of maintaining myself, I could still provide for their school expenses and keep them with me.”

“Maintain yourself, my dear Katherine; it is easier said than done.  You are quite infatuated about those nephews of yours, and I dare say they will give you small thanks.”

“I know it is not easy for an untrained woman like myself to find remunerative work, but I shall try.  Here is a note from Mr. Newton asking me to call on him to-morrow.  Let us hope he will have some good news, though I cannot help fearing he would have told me in this if he had.”

It was with a sickening sensation of uneasy hope shot with dark streaks of fear that Katherine started to keep her appointment with Mr. Newton.  Eager to begin her economy at once, Katherine took an omnibus instead of indulging in a brougham or a cab.  She could not help smiling at her own sense of helpless discomfort when a fat woman almost sat down upon her, and the conductor told her to look sharp when the vehicle stopped to let her alight; as she reflected that barely three years ago she considered an omnibus rather a luxury, and that it was a matter of careful calculation how many pennies might be saved by walking to certain points whence one could travel at a reduced fare.  How easily are luxurious and self-indulgent habits formed!  Well, she had done with them forever now; nor would anything seem a hardship were she but permitted to repair in some measure the evil she had wrought.

She found Mr. Newton awaiting her with evident impatience.  “Well, my dear Miss Liddell,” he said, “I have been most anxious to see you, though I have not much that is cheering to communicate.  I have had several interviews with your cousin, but he seems still unaccountably hard and vindictive.  However, as I am, of course, your adviser, he has been obliged to seek another solicitor, and I am happy to say he has fallen into good hands, and that by a sort of lucky chance.”

“How?” asked Katherine, who was looking pale and feeling in the depths.

“Well, a few days ago a gentleman called here to ask me for the address of a former client of whom I have heard nothing for years.  I think you know or have met this gentleman—­Mr. Errington.”