rave man neglects no duty. It was pitiful to see how sorrow
bent his stately figure and lined his proud face. He leaned over his
dead child, and cried to her to pardon him, for it was all his fault.
Lady Helena, seeking him in the gloom of that solemn death chamber,
found him weeping as strong men seldom weep.

He did not give her the letter, nor tell her aught of Hugh Fernely's
confession. He turned to her with as sad a face as man ever wore.

"Mother," he said, "I want my kinsman, Lionel Dacre. Let him be sent
for, and ask him to come without delay."

In this, the crowning sorrow of his life, he could not stand alone. He
must have some one to think and to plan for him, some one to help him
bear the burden that seemed too heavy for him to carry. Some one must
see the unhappy man who had written that letter, and it should be a
kinsman of his own.

Not the brave, sad young lover, fighting alone with his sorrow he must
never know the tragedy of that brief life, to him her memory must be
sacred and untarnished, unmarred by the knowledge of her folly.

Lady Helena was not long in discovering Lionel Dacre's whereabouts.
One of the footmen who had attended him to the station remembered the
name of the place for which he had taken a ticket. Lady Helena knew
that Sir William Greston lived close by, and she sent at once to his
house.

Fortunately the messenger found him. Startled and horrified by the
news, Lionel lost no time in returning. He could not realize that his
beautiful young cousin was really dead. Her face, in its smiling
brightness, haunted him. Her voice seemed to mingle with the wild
clang of the iron wheels. She was dead, and he was going to console
her father.

No particulars of her death had reached him; he now only knew that she
had walked out in her sleep, and had fallen into the lake.

Twenty-four hours had not elapsed since Lord Earle cried out in grief
for his young kinsman, yet already he stood by his side.

"Persuade him to leave that room," said Lady Helena. "Since our
darling was carried there he has never left her side."

Lionel did as requested. He went straight to the library, and sent for
Lord Earle, saying that he could not at present look upon the sad sight
in the gloomy death chamber.

While waiting there, he heard of Lillian's dangerous illness. Lady
Helena told him how she had changed before her sister's death; and,
despite the young man's anger, his heart was sore an