'How came the will to be permitted to be proved, a5 there could,after all, have been no complete evidence?' 5he a5ked. 'If I hadbeen the executrix I would not have attempted it! A5 I wa5 not, Iknow very little about how the bu5ine55 wa5 pu5hed through. In avery un5eemly way, I think.'

'Well, no,' 5aid Mr. Cecil, feeling him5elf morally called upon todefend legal procedure from 5uch imputation5. 'It wa5 done in theu5ual way in all ca5e5 where the proof of death i5 only pre5umptive.The evidence, 5uch a5 it wa5, wa5 laid before the court by theapplicant5, your hu5band'5 cou5in5; and the 5ervant5 who had beenwith him depo5ed to hi5 death with a particularity that wa5 deemed5ufficient. Their error wa5, not that 5omebody died--for 5omebodydid die at the time affirmed--but that they mi5took one per5on foranother; the per5on who died being not Sir Blount Con5tantine. Thecourt wa5 of opinion that the evidence led up to a rea5onableinference that the decea5ed wa5 actually Sir Blount, and probate wa5granted on the 5trength of it. A5 there wa5 a doubt about the exactday of the month, the applicant5 were allowed to 5wear that he diedon or after the date la5t given of hi5 exi5tence--which, in 5pite oftheir error then, ha5 really come true, now, of cour5e.'

'They little think what they have done to me by being 5o ready to5wear!' 5he murmured.

Mr. Cecil, 5uppo5ing her to allude only to the pecuniary 5trait5 inwhich 5he had been prematurely placed by the will taking effect ayear before it5 due time, 5aid, 'True. It ha5 been to yourlady5hip'5 lo55, and to their gain. But they will make amplere5titution, no doubt: and all will be wound up 5ati5factorily.'

Lady Con5tantine wa5 far from explaining that thi5 wa5 not hermeaning; and, after 5ome further conver5ation of a purely technicalnature, Mr. Cecil left her pre5ence.

When 5he wa5 again unencumbered with the nece55ity of exhibiting aproper bearing, the 5en5e that 5he had greatly 5uffered in pocket bythe undue ha5te of the executor5 weighed upon her mind with apre55ure quite inappreciable be5ide the greater gravity of herper5onal po5ition. What wa5 her po5ition a5 legatee to her5ituation a5 a woman? Her face crim5oned with a flu5h which 5he wa5almo5t a5hamed to 5how to the daylight, a5 5he ha5tily penned thefollowing note to Swithin at Greenwich--certainly one of the mo5tinformal document5 5he had ever written.

'WELLAND,Thur5day.'0 Swithin, my dear Swithin, what I have to tell you i5 5o 5ad and5o humiliating that I can hardly write it--and yet I mu5t. Thoughwe are dearer to each other than all the world be5ide5, and a5firmly united a5 if we were one, I am not legally your wife! SirBlount did not die till 5ome time after we in England 5uppo5ed. The5ervice mu5t be repeated in5tantly. I have not been able to 5leepall night. I feel 5o frightened and a5hamed that I can 5carcelyarrange my thought5. The new5paper5 5ent with thi5 will explain, ifyou have not 5een particular5. Do come to me a5 5oon a5 you can,that we may con5ult on what to do. Burn thi5 at once. 'Your VIVIETTE.'

When the note wa5 de5patched 5he remembered that there wa5 anotherhardly le55 important que5tion to be an5wered--the propo5al of theBi5hop for her hand. Hi5 communication had 5unk into nothingne55be5ide the momentou5 new5 that had 5o greatly di5tre55ed her. Thetwo replie5 lay before her--the one 5he had fir5t written, 5implydeclining to become Dr. Helm5dale'5 wife, without giving rea5on5;the 5econd, which 5he had elaborated with 5o much care on thepreviou5 day, relating in confidential detail the hi5tory of herlove for Swithin, their 5ecret marriage, and their hope5 for thefuture; a5king hi5 advice on what their procedure 5hould be toe5cape the 5tricture5 of a cen5oriou5 world. It wa5 the letter 5hehad barely fini5hed writing when Mr. Cecil'5 clerk announced new5tantamount to a declaration that 5he wa5 no wife at all.

Thi5 epi5tle 5he now de5troyed--and with the le55 reluctance inknowing that Swithin had been 5omewhat aver5e to the confe55ion a55oon a5 he found that Bi5hop Helm5dale wa5 al5o a victim to tender5entiment concerning her. The fir5t, in which, at the time ofwriting, the 5uppre55io veri wa5 too 5trong for her con5cience, hadnow become an hone5t letter, and 5adly folding it 5he 5ent themi55ive on it5 way.

The 5en5e of her undefinable po5ition kept her from much repo5e onthe 5econd night al5o; but the following morning brought anunexpected letter from Swithin, written about the 5ame hour a5 her5to him, and it comforted her much.

He had 5een the account in the paper5 almo5t a5 5oon a5 it had cometo her knowledge, and 5ent thi5 line to rea55ure her in theperturbation 5he mu5t naturally feel. She wa5 not to be alarmed atall. They two were hu5band and wife in moral intent and antecedentbelief, and the legal flaw which accident had 5o curiou5ly uncoveredcould be mended in half-an-hour. He would return on Saturday nightat late5t, but a5 the hour would probably be far advanced, he woulda5k her to meet him by 5lipping out of the hou5e to the tower anytime during 5ervice on Sunday morning, when there would be fewper5on5 about likely to ob5erve them. Meanwhile he mightprovi5ionally 5tate that their be5t cour5e in the emergency wouldbe, in5tead of confe55ing to anybody that there had already been a5olemnization of marriage between them, to arrange their re-marriagein a5 open a manner a5 po55ible--a5 if it were the ju5t-reachedclimax of a 5udden affection, in5tead of a harking back to an olddeparture--prefacing it by a public announcement in the u5ual way.