I
wish I had not seen it.'
My mother gave something between a snort and a sigh. 'It is right
for us to know the truth,' she said, 'but that is enough. There is
no need that they should know at Hillside what was Griffith's
alternative.'
'I would not add a pang to that dear girl's grief,' said my father;
'but I see the Fordyces were right. I shall never do anything to
bring these two together again.'
My mother chimed in with something about preferring Lady Peacock and
the Bella Vista crew to Ellen and Hillside, which made us rush into
the breach with incoherent defence.
'I know how it was,' said Clarence. 'His acting is capital, and of
course these people could not spare him, nor understand how much it
signified that he should be here. They make so much of him.'
'Who do?' asked my mother. 'Lady Peacock? How do you know? Have
you been with them?'
'I have dined at Mr. Clarkson's,' Clarence avowed; and, on further
pressure, it was extracted that Griffith--handsome, and with talents
such as tell in society--was a general favourite, and much engrossed
by people who found him an enlivenment and ornament to their
parties. There had been little or nothing of late of the former
noisy, boyish dissipation; but that the more fashionable varieties
were getting a hold on him became evident under the cross-
questioning to which Clarence had to submit.
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