‘I don’t know to what you refer,’ he faltered. ‘I am sure, Miss Rich——’ and then he broke off altogether, so great was his confusion under the steady light of her keen eyes. ‘There is no doubt,’ he went on, as soon as he recovered himself, ‘that everything possible and impossible is talked about. It is the fashion everywhere now-a-days. You know it as well as I. But had anything that was less than respectful ever been breathed in my presence——’

‘I was quite sure of that,’ said Nelly, leaning towards him with glowing eyes and expressive face. The eyes were full of soft gratitude, and something that looked like a tender pride. ‘I know that,’ she repeated; ‘you have always been so different!’ The voice had fallen quite low, so that Frank had to lean forward to hear it. And there was encouragement in her look for anything he might have had to say, for anything he might have been moved to do, in the excitement of the moment. And Frank’s heart was softened by compunction and the sense that he was not so blameless as he had claimed to be. The crisis of his fate had come.

THE END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

LONDON:
Printed by Strangeways & Walden, Castle St. Leicester Sq.

THE THREE BROTHERS.

BY
MRS. OLIPHANT,
AUTHOR OF
‘CHRONICLES OF CARLINGFORD,’
‘SALEM CHAPEL,’ ‘THE MINISTER’S WIFE,’
ETC. ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1870.
The Right of Translation is Reserved.

LONDON:
Strangeways and Walden, Printers,
28 Castle St. Leicester Sq.

CONTENTS
OF
THE THIRD VOLUME.

PAGE
[I.][ALICE’S FATE][1]
[II.][A STRUGGLE][16]
[III.][EXCHANGED INTO THE 200TH][36]
[IV.][WHAT IT COSTS TO HAVE ONE’S WAY][56]
[V.][THE FALLING OF THE WATERS][73]
[VI.][THE RAVEN][93]
[VII.][THE DOVE][113]
[VIII.][BEN][133]
[IX.][THE NEXT MORNING][154]
[X.][AUNT LYDIA][174]
[XI.][ALL HOME][184]
[XII.][SUSPENSE][199]
[XIII.][THE WILL][220]
[XIV.][THE END OF A DREAM][241]
[XV.][AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR][262]
[XVI.][WHAT IT ALL MEANT TO LAURIE][283]
[XVII.][CONCLUSION][304]