"How could he? How could he?"
"Of course Mr. Denning sent him a check, a pretty large one, I dare say. And I suppose he has his freedom by this time, unless he has married again."
"He will never marry again."
"Indeed, that is the strange part of the story. It was because he wanted to marry again that he was 'fervently, feverishly awaiting his freedom.'"
"I can hardly believe it, Ethel. What does Dora say?"
"I have the news from Lucy. She says when Mostyn was ignored by everyone in the neighborhood, one woman stood up for him almost passionately. Do you remember Miss Sadler?"
"That remarkable governess of the Surreys? Why, Ethel, she is the very ugliest woman I ever saw."
"She is so ugly that she is fascinating. If you see her one minute you can never forget her, and she is brains to her finger tips. She ruled everyone at Surrey House. She was Lord Surrey's secretary and Lady Surrey's adviser. She educated the children, and they adored her; she ruled the servants, and they obeyed her with fear and trembling. Nothing was done in Surrey House without her approval. And if her face was not handsome, she had a noble presence and a manner that was irresistible."
"And she took Mostyn's part?"
"With enthusiasm. She abused Dora individually, and American women generally. She pitied Mr. Mostyn, and made others do so; and when she perceived there would be but a shabby and tardy restoration for him socially, she advised him to shake off the dust of his feet from Monk-Rawdon, and begin life in some more civilized place. And in order that he might do so, she induced Lord Surrey to get him a very excellent civil appointment in Calcutta."
"Then he is going to India?"
"He is probably now on the way there. He sold the Mostyn estate----"
"I can hardly believe it."
"He sold it to John Thomas Rawdon. John Thomas told me it belonged to Rawdon until the middle of the seventeenth century, and he meant to have it back. He has got it."
"Miss Sadler must be a witch."
"She is a sensible, practical woman, who knows how to manage men. She has soothed Mostyn's wounded pride with appreciative flattery and stimulated his ambition. She has promised him great things in India, and she will see that he gets them."
"He must be completely under her control."