"
The baronet smiled as he bade adieu to the schoolmistress. He had told
Honoria that policy had compelled him to speak of her as a distant
relative of his own; and there was no fear that the girl would betray
herself or him by any awkward admissions.
Sir Oswald felt depressed and gloomy as he drove back to town. It
seemed to him as if, in parting from his _protegee_, he had lost
something that was necessary to his happiness.
"I have not spent half a dozen hours in her society," he thought, "and
yet she occupies my mind more than my nephew, Reginald, who for fifteen
years of my life has been the object of so much hope, so many cares.
What does it all mean? What is the key to this mystery?"
* * * * *
CHAPTER V.
"EVIL, BE THOU MY GOOD."
Reginald Eversleigh was handsome, accomplished, agreeable--irresistible
when he chose, many people said; but he was not richly endowed with
those intellectual gifts which lift a man to either the good or bad
eminence. He was weak and vacillating--one minute swayed by a good
influence, a transient touch of penitence, affection, or generosity; in
the next given over entirely to his own selfishness, thinking only of
his own enjoyment. He was apt to be influenced by any friend or
companion endowed with intellectual superiority; and he possessed such
a friend in the person of Victor Carrington, a young surgeon, a man
infinitely below Mr.
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