MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 93 



again under different circumstances " expression on his face 

 (and on that occasion he was perfectly sober) which had 

 filled Miss Badsworth with annoyance, not to say panic, such 

 as might be felt by a lordly salmon who finds his progress 

 impeded by the meshes of a net. 



'' I don't know why you should say 'poor Victor,' Lavvy, 

 one would think he was being kept out of his rights by 

 fraud. Your Uncle Hugo, though he never mentioned the 

 subject of his relations, was well aware of everything that 

 went on ; it is simply marvellous to me that, in making 

 arrangements for his successor in the event of my failure, 

 he chose Victor instead of your father. Your uncle was by 

 no means a vindictive person, and I should never have sus- 

 pected him of attaching any weight to our conversation that 

 night in London. I certainly said I thought I could manage 

 one of his day's work if it came in my way, but I sincerely 

 wish now that I had held my tongue." 



Miss Lavvy was silent ; she was thinking how easy it is to 

 say we could fill another's lot better than our own, and was 

 racking a fairly shrewd brain for a solution of the mystery. 



Miss Badsworth watched her, and a vague suspicion began 

 to take shape in her mind. From her niece's description 

 Dewthorpe must be an out-of-the-way place with probably 

 little society, and Victor Bickersdyke had been for a con- 

 siderable time in the neighbourhood ostensibly painting 

 pictures ; the girl might be ignorant of the failing of the 

 young man, and besides, if this were not the case, how 

 many instances she could recall (and she prided herself on 

 her knowledge of human nature) where infatuation covered a 

 multitude of sins. 



''What do you think of Victor, Lavvy?" she asked pre- 

 sently. 



Now with all the sedateness of her manner upon occa- 

 sion, Miss Badsworth the younger, though a dweller for 

 some years in a remote part of Cornwall, had a quick in- 

 telligence and keen sense of humour. In a twinkling she 

 divined her aunt's thoughts, and replied accordingly. 



