Events moved quickly; as, at certain crises of our lives, they have a of doing. During twenty years very little had really happened to Nora; in a few crowded, bewildering days for her the whole world was turned upside down. On the Friday--the day after the funeral--Nora told Dr. Banyard that she was inclined to be of his opinion, that the had better be called together, and matters left in their hands. She did not tell him that her faith in her father remained unshaken. It was made clear to her that this was a question of hours, possibly even of minutes, if something was not done to the creditors at once then the worst would befall; it was no use delivering herself of expressions of faith when action was required. So she the doctor to do his best for her, and left everything to his .  
Throughout that day she was puzzled by the singularity of Miss Harding's behaviour; she had cares enough of her own to occupy her mind, yet she could not help but notice that there was something very strange the matter with Elaine. The young lady's outburst of the evening before had not been explained. All day long she was in a state of nervous which was almost ; such conduct was unusual in Elaine, who had been to laugh at the idea both of nerves and of hysterics. Nora did not know what to make of her. So far as she could gather, from the which the girl now and then let fall, she was troubled about three things. First, because of the poverty which was in store for Nora; then because of the various amounts, which together did not amount to a very large sum, and most of which, to tell the truth, the had herself forgotten, in which she was indebted to Nora; and, in the third part, because of a nebulous scheme she had for endowing Nora with unnamed, but seemingly immense supplies of ready money. It was this scheme which, apparently, was worrying her more than anything else; though what it really was, was beyond Nora's comprehension. Elaine talked--vaguely, it is true, but , none the less--of being in possession of funds which Nora knew well she never had had, and probably never would have; and about which she waxed quite warm when Nora smilingly asked if she was quite sure she was not dreaming.
 
"You're not to laugh!" she cried. "You're not to laugh! You are to have it! you shall have it!"
 
"I shall have what?"
 
"The money I'm telling you about!"
 
"But what money are you telling me about? Elaine, you don't seriously wish me to believe that you have money. Only this week you were crying because of what you said you owed me; though I say you owe me nothing, since all that has been between us has been for love's sake. And only last week you told me that your pockets were empty, and you didn't know where you were going to get something to put in them; don't you remember?"
 
"But I may know where money is!"
 
"Yes, and so may I; there's money in the bank, but it's neither yours nor mine; and I'm sure--don't you know I'm sure? you must be a goose if you don't--that you've no more idea how, honestly, it's to be wooed and won than I have; so what's the use of our pretending?"
 
To the speaker's surprise Miss Harding glared at her for some moments in silence; then, as if in sudden rage, she flung herself out of the room without a word; sounds were audible as if she were as she went.
 
"What," inquired Nora of herself, not by any means for the first time that day, "can be the matter with Elaine?"
 
On the Saturday the storm broke on her from a quarter for which, at the moment, she was unprepared. Word had been brought that the Earl and Countess of Mountdennis were in the drawing-room, waiting to see her. Her first impulse was to send an excuse; the announcement of their presence made her conscious of a sinking heart; but it was not her way to excuse herself because she feared unpleasantness; second thoughts prevailed. She recognized that, from their point of view, they were entitled to see her, even in these first days of her . She needed none to tell her that the of their presence was not likely to be an agreeable one; that they probably had not come upon an errand of love; she had too shrewd a notion of their characters. Under the circumstances the last thing she might expect from them was sympathy; she was aware that they had a standard of their own; and that according to that the more a person stood in need of sympathy the less likely they were to it. Still they were Robert's parents; it was for her to consider him rather than herself; so, for the first time since her father was taken ill she ventured into the drawing-room.
 
The of the reception which they accorded her was ; she knew at once that so far from having deserved their sympathy she had their displeasure. The last time they had met they had both of them taken her, not only , but , to their ; showering oh her tokens of affection which , if anything, on the side of redundance. Now the lady permitted her to touch a fish-like hand, taking care not to allow her to approach too near; while the gentleman merely bowed. It was he who first, as if he were addressing some one whose behaviour had both pained and shocked him.
 
"We only learnt this morning, actually by the merest accident, that your father was not only dead, but buried."
 
"Not only dead but buried!"
 
This was the Countess. It was a joke that, if they were both engaged in the same conversation, when he did not echo her she echoed him. If they ever differed it must have been in private; in public their agreement was so complete as sometimes to approach almost to the of the .
 
"We were not even aware that your father was unwell; we had received no information on the subject whatever."
 
"Positively none whatever!"
 
"It seems to me--to us--a most extraordinary thing that you should not have us of the condition of your father's health; that you should have given us no intimation of any kind; that you should have kept us in utter ignorance."
 
"In utter ignorance!"
 
"May I ask, may we ask, Miss Lindsay, why you have not treated us with at least some approximation to that consideration which our position obviously demanded?"
 
"Our position obviously demanded!"
 
"To begin with, it was all very sudden; and then I didn't know where you were.
 
"But you might have made , anybody would have told you; almost, one might say, the first person you met in the street. We are not the kind of people who hide ourselves in holes."
 
"No, not in holes!"
 
"The moment we learnt what had occurred--learnt, as I have observed, by the sheerest accident,--we rushed back to Holtye, that very moment; though to do so involved us in the most serious inconvenience; but we had no option."
 
"We had no option."
 
"Because, not only were we informed, by accident, that your father was dead and buried, but we were also told, at the same time, what struck us as being so surprising as to be almost incredible, that he had not left behind him even so much as a sixpence."
 
"Not even so much as a sixpence!"
 
"You will remember, Miss Lindsay--that is, I take it for granted that information was given to you to that effect, that before sanctioning my--our--son Robert's engagement to you I made a special point of calling upon your father, who then and there informed, I may say, assured, me that, on the occasion of your marriage, he would present you with a house and furniture, and settle on you five thousand pounds a year. On the strength of that positive and definite assurance I--we--gave our consent, which, without it, we never should have dreamt of doing. We have our duty to perform, not only to our son, but to ourselves, and I may say, to our family, of which we are the representatives; I therefore offer no excuse for taking advantage of the first opportunity which arises to ask if your father has left his affairs in a condition which will enable you to carry out that assurance. On behalf of the Countess of Mountdennis, and of myself, I beg you, Miss Lindsay, in answering that question, to be perfectly plain and perfectly ."
 
"Perfectly plain and perfectly candid!"
 
The Earl, very tall, very straight, very thin, waved his hard felt hat in one hand, and his gold-knobbed malacca in the other, in a manner which was hardly so impressive as he perhaps inten............