"Commonplace woman! A girl of that splendid family, with all that money and a title!"

"None of those things prevent her being commonplace," returned Regina calmly.

"You've never seen her, you don't know anything about her."

"Yes; she came here one day for a few minutes, about some business."

"You could not tell in that time what she was like."

"I saw her and talked to her. I should be very stupid if I could not tell then what sort of person she was."

Miss Lanark rocked herself backwards and forwards in her chair in silence.

"To think of my brother," she moaned, after a pause, "with all his wealth, his attainments, his opportunities, doing nothing with them—living in sin, like this!"

Regina leant back in her chair.