undefined evil influence that might yet assert itself. A superstitious
forewarning of this sort was a weakness new to her in her experience of
herself. She was heartily ashamed of it--and yet it kept its hold. Once
more the book dropped on her lap. She laid it aside, and walked wearily
to the window to look at the weather.

Almost at the same moment Mrs. Eyrecourt's maid disturbed her mistress
over the second volume of the novel by entering the room with a letter.

"For me?" Stella asked, looking round from the window.

"No, ma'am--for Mrs. Eyrecourt."

The letter had been brought to the house by one of Lady Loring's
servants. In delivering it he had apparently given private instructions
to the maid. She laid her finger significantly on her lips when she gave
the letter to her mistress.

In these terms Lady Loring wrote:

"If Stella happens to be with you, when you receive my note, don't say
anything which will let her know that I am your correspondent. She has
always, poor dear, had an inveterate distrust of Father Benwell; and,
between ourselves, I am not sure that she is quite so foolish as I once
thought. The Father has unexpectedly left us--with a well-framed excuse
which satisfied Lord Loring. It fails to satisfy Me. Not from any
wonderful exercise of penetration on my part, but in consequence of
something I have just heard in course of conversation with a Catholic
friend. Father Benwell, my dear, turns out to be a Jesuit; and, what is
more, a person of such high authority in the Order, that his concealment