the present to Cis or Charlie regarding the impending change, lest they
should be unsettled.

"And shall we come to stay at Miss Payne's for the Easter holidays?"
cried the boys in chorus, as Katherine took leave of them the next day.

"I hope so, dears, but I am not sure."

"Then will you come down to Sandbourne? That would be jolly."

"I cannot promise, Cecil. We will see."

"But, auntie, we'll not have to go to Castleford?"

"Why? Would you not like to go?"

"No. Would you, Charlie? I don't like being there nearly so much as at
school. I don't like having dinner by ourselves, and yet I don't care to
dine with Colonel Ormonde; he is always in a wax."

"He does not mean to be cross," said Katherine, her heart sinking within
her. Should she be obliged to hand over the poor little helpless fellows
to the reluctant guardianship of their irritable step-father? This would
indeed be a pang. Was it for this she had broken the law, and marred the
harmony of her own moral nature?

"Well, my own dear, I will do the best I can for you, you may be quite
sure. Now you must let me go; I will come again as soon as I can." Cis
kissed her heartily, and scampered away to take his place in the
class-room, quite content with his school life. Charlie threw his arms
around his auntie's neck, and clung to her lovingly. But he too was
called away, and nothing remained for Katherine and her companion but to
make their way to the station and return to town.

This visit cost Katherine more than any other outcome of George
Liddell's reappearance. Her quick imagination depicted what the boys'
lives would be under the jurisdiction of their mother and her
husband--the worries, the suppression, the sense of being always naughty
and in the wrong, the different yet equally pernicious effect such
treatment would have on the brothers.

"This is the worst part of the business to you," said Miss Payne, when
they had reached home and sat down to a late tea together. "You look
like a ghost, or as if you had seen one. You will make yourself ill, and
really there is no need to do anything of the kind. Those children have
a mother who is very well off. I always thought it frightfully imprudent
of you to take those boys even when you had plenty of money. Now, of
course, when it is impossible for you to keep them, it is a bitter
wrench to part, but--"

"But I am not sure that we must part," interrupted Katherine, eagerly.
"Should my cousin be induc