u,
for having to be so horrid, and making you go through all this?--Thank
you again. Shall we turn homeward now?--Yes, we'll be there by dark."

She sat very still, and paler than I like to see her. As for me, great
beads of perspiration were on my forehead, though it was a cool day. I
drove as fast now as the law allows. At last she spoke, and her voice
trembled. "Brother, how shockingly we have all misjudged you!"

"No, dear: you did not misjudge me at all. But you have been educating
me, and it is fit the best there is in me should come to the front for
your service--if it never put its head up before, nor should again. Wait
till I come back: I've done nothing yet."

"You have done everything. The rest will be easy for you, compared with
this."

"By Jove, you are right there: I'm glad we're through this part of
it.--One thing more; about Jane. She loves you as I do; she has been
berating me for indifference and slackness in the cause. O, she is a
trump: she was crying bitterly last night because she could do nothing
to help you, and because I was too lazy and cowardly to move; she has
egged me on to this. May I tell her what we have agreed on?"

"O yes, tell her anything you like, and Mabel too. I have made you all
such a poor return: any other woman in my place would have trusted you
long ago, and been the better for it. But I am so strangely made,
Robert: my lips are like a seal to my heart. Excuse me at dinner, won't
you? And promise me one thing--that always, after this, you will come to
me at once, without scruple, when you want me, on my account or on your
own. As if I could be reluctant to talk with you! Tell me when you hear
from him, and when you are going, and--anything else. You won't mind my
silence, or wait for me to speak? And you must never be afraid of me
again."

XXIII.

PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.

The Princess was seen no more that night, and I got away till dinner
time. Then I said that she was not coming down, and anxious looks were
exchanged, and dark ones cast on me. In return I winked at Jane, and
frowned severely on Herbert, who intercepted the signal and began to
grin. Mabel, who had seen it too, reproved me for setting the boy a bad
example; and thus a diversion was effected. While she was seeing after
the children, my sister carried me off to the library: I made her kiss
me before I would tell her anything.

"Jane, you may scold me as much as you like after this, and I will never