It ran thus: "MY DEAR ALICIA,--I have just learned for certain that Lord T.is at his place in Scotland.

Singularly enough, he is described as apparently of foreign extraction, and I hear that he is accompanied by a friend of the name of Count Bunker.

I am just setting out for the North myself, and trust that I may be able to elucidate the mystery.

Yours very truly, "JUSTIN WALLINGFORD." "Foreign extraction! Count Bunker!" gasped the Baroness; and without stopping to debate the matter again, she rushed into her mother's arms, and there sobbed out the strange story of her second letter and the two Lord Tulliwuddles.
It were difficult to say whether anger at her daughter's deceit, indignation with the treacherous Baron, or a stern pleasure in finding her worst prognostications in a fair way to being proved, was the uppermost emotion in Lady Grillyer's mind when she had listened to this relation.

Certainly poor Alicia could not but think that sympathy for her troubles formed no ingredient in the mixture.
"To think of your concealing this from me for so long!" she cried: "and Sir Justin abetting you! I shall tell him very plainly what I think of him! But if my daughter sets an example in treachery, what can one expect of one's friends ?" "After all, mamma, it was my own and Rudolph's concern more than your's!" exclaimed Alicia, flaring up for an instant.
"Don't answer me, child!" thundered the Countess.