on's information that Walter was
returning with his regiment to England, and in a very few weeks would be
once more an inmate of her home. She answered cheerfully in the
affirmative, and Emmeline again inquired--"Was Captain Cameron at all
acquainted with Cecil Grahame? Did he know the cause of his having been
so disgracefully cashiered?"

"Their regiments were quartered in such different parts of Ireland,"
replied Mrs. Cameron, "that I believe they only met on one occasion, and
then Walter was glad to withdraw from the society of the dissolute young
men by whom Lieutenant Grahame was always surrounded. The cause of his
disgrace appears enveloped in mystery. Walter certainly alluded to it,
but so vaguely, that I did not like to ask further particulars. I
dreaded the effect it would have on Mr. Grahame, but little imagined
poor Lady Helen would have sunk beneath it."

"I believe few know how she doted on that boy. It was misguided, but
still it was love that caused her to ruin him as she did in his
childhood. From the hour he was expelled from Cambridge, she never held
up her head; it was so cruelly ungrateful of him to set off for Ireland
without once seeking her; and this last stroke was too much for her to
bear. She still hoped, despite her better judgment, that he would in the
end distinguish himself, and she could not meet the disappointment."

"Did she long survive the intelligence?"

"Scarcely four-and-twenty hours. Mr. Grahame, feeling unable to command
himself, requested mamma and Lilla to impart to her the distressing
information, which they did most tenderly; but their caution was
entirely fruitless. Her constant inquiry was relative to his present
situation, and when she heard that he had not been seen since he was
cashiered, she sunk into a state of insensibility from which she never
recovered."

"And Mr. Grahame?"

"The shock rendered him almost distracted, for it was so sudden. Lady
Helen had become so altered lately, that she was devotedly loved both by
her husband and child; she had been so long ailing, that both Lilla and
her father fondly hoped and believed she would be spared to them still
some years longer, though she might never entirely recover her health.
Mr. Grahame's feelings are stronger than most people imagine, but his
misfortunes have bowed him down even more than I could have believed
possible."

"They appeared so united and happy, that I do not wonder at it,"
observed Mrs. Cameron