It is a meanness to be
thinking about it now--no better than lurking about the battle-field to
strip the dead; but there never was more gratuitous sinning. I have
nothing to gain there--absolutely nothing. Then why can't I face the
facts, and behave as they demand, instead of leaving my father to
suppose that there are matters he can't speak to me about, though I
might be useful in them?"

The last thought made one wave with the impulse that sent Rex walking
firmly into the house and through the open door of the study, where he
saw his father packing a traveling-desk.

"Can I be of any use, sir?" said Rex, with rallied courage, as his
father looked up at him.

"Yes, my boy; when I'm gone, just see to my letters, and answer where
necessary, and send me word of everything. Dymock will manage the
parish very well, and you will stay with your mother, or, at least, go
up and down again, till I come back, whenever that may be."

"You will hardly be very long, sir, I suppose," said Rex, beginning to
strap a railway rug. "You will perhaps bring my cousin back to
England?" He forced himself to speak of Gwendolen for the first time,
and the rector noticed the epoch with satisfaction.

"That depends," he answered, taking the subject as a matter-of-course
between them. "Perhaps her mother may stay there with her, and I may
come back very soon. This telegram leaves us in ignorance which is
rather anxious. But no doubt the arrangements of the will lately made
are satisfactory, and there may possibly be an heir yet to be born. In
any case, I feel confident that Gwendolen will be liberally--I should
expect, splendidly--provided for."

"It must have been a great shock for her," said Rex, getting more
resolute after the first twinge had been borne. "I suppose he was a
devoted husband."

"No doubt of it," said the rector, in his most decided manner. "Few men
of his position would have come forward as he did under the
circumstances."

Rex had never seen Grandcourt, had never been spoken to about him by
any one of the family, and knew nothing of Gwendolen's flight from her
suitor to Leubronn. He only knew that Grandcourt, being very much in
love with her, had made her an offer in the first weeks of her sudden
poverty, and had behaved very handsomely in providing for her mother
and sisters. That was all very natural and what Rex himself would have
liked to do. Grandcourt had been a lucky fellow, and had had some
happiness before h