As mistress of the household, as a Christian woman, as the widow of your dear brother, as a mother to this misguided girl, I must state the facts.

I know you mean well; I know you wish to spare me.

Quite useless! I must state the facts." Sir Patrick bowed, and submitted.

(If he had only been a bricklayer! and if Lady Lundie had not been, what her ladyship unquestionably was, the strongest person of the two!) "Permit me to draw a veil, for your sake," said Lady Lundie, "over the horrors--I can not, with the best wish to spare you, conscientiously call them by any other name--the horrors that took place up stairs.

The moment I heard that Blanche was ill I was at my post.