“A gentleman as is asking for Miss Margaret,” the servant had said; that same cook to whom Mr Grandairs had been so severe on the occasion of Mrs Mackenzie’s dinner party. The other girl had been unnecessary to them in their poverty, and had left them.

“My name is Maguire, the Rev. Mr Maguire, from Littlebath, where I had the pleasure of knowing Miss Mackenzie.”

Then the widow asked him to take a chair, and he took a chair.

“My sister-in-law is not with us at present,” said Mrs Mackenzie.

“She is staying for a visit with her aunt, Lady Ball, at the Cedars, Twickenham,” said Mary Jane, who had contrived to drop her sheet, and hustle it under the table with her feet, as soon as she learned that the visitor was a clergyman.

“Lady Ball is the lady of Sir John Ball, Baronet,” said Miss Colza, whose good nature made her desirous of standing up for the honour of the family with which she was, for the time, domesticated.

“I knew she had been at Lady Ball’s,” said the clergyman, “as I heard from her from thence; but I thought she had probably returned.”

“Oh dear, no,” said the widow, “she ain’t returned here, nor don’t mean. We haven’t the room for her, and that’s the truth. Have we, Mary Jane?”

“That we have not, mamma; and I don’t think aunt Margaret would think of such a thing.”

Then, thought Mr Maguire, the Balls must have got hold of the heiress, and not the Mackenzies, and my battle must be fought at the Cedars, and not here. Still, as he was there, he thought possibly he might obtain some further information; and this would be the easier, if, as appeared to be the case, there was enmity between the Gower Street family and their relative.

“Has Miss Mackenzie gone to live permanently at the Cedars?” he asked.

“Not that I know of,” said the widow.

“It isn’t at all unlikely, mamma, that it may be so, when you consider everything. It’s just the sort of way in which they’ll most likely get over her.”

“Mary Jane, hold your tongue,” said her mother; “you shouldn’t say things of that sort before strangers.”

“Though I may not have the pleasure of knowing you and your amiable family,” said Mr Maguire, smiling his sweetest, “I am by no means a stranger to Miss Mackenzie.”

Then the ladies all looked at him, and thought they had never seen anything so terrible as that squint.

“Miss Mackenzie is making a long visit at the Cedars,” said Miss Colza, “that is all we know at present. I am told the Balls are very nice people, but perhaps a little worldly-minded; that’s to be expected, however, from people who live out of the west-end from London. I live in Finsbury Square, or at least, I did before I came here, and I ain’t a bit ashamed to own it. But of course the west-end is the nicest.”