up to Hatton Hall, and we would stay with mother while you were
away. It would be a great pleasure to mother, and do us all good."

"But, John, London would be no pleasure to me without Martha."

"I feel much the same, Jane. Martha is the joy of life to me. You must
leave me my little daughter. You know her grandmother will take every
care of her."

"I can take care of her myself. She has been my companion and comforter
all through these past four years of sorrow. I cannot part with her, not
for a day."

This controversy regarding the child was continued with unremitting
force of feeling on both sides for some time, but John finally gave way
to Jane's insistence, and the early days of April were spent in
preparations for the journey to London and the redecoration of the home.
Then one exquisite spring morning they went away in sunshine and smiles,
and John returned alone to his lonely and disorderly house. The very
furniture looked forlorn and unhappy. It was piled up and covered with
unsightly white cloths. John hastily closed the doors of the rooms that
had always been so lovely in their order and beautiful associations. He
could not frame himself to work of any kind, his heart was full of
regrets and forebodings. "I will go to my mother," he thought. "Until I
hear they are safe in Lord Harlow's house, I can do nothing at all."

So he went up to Hatton Hall and found his mother setting her
dinner-table. "Eh, but I am glad to see thee, John!" she cried joyfully.
"Come thy ways in, dear lad. There's a nice roast turning over a
Yorkshire pudding; thou art just in a fit time. What brought thee up the
hill this morning?"

"I came to see your face and hear your voice, mother."

"Well now! I am glad and proud to hear that. How is Martha and her
mother?"

"They are on their way to London."

"However could thou afford it?"

"Sometimes we spend money we cannot afford."

"To be sure we do--and are always sorry for it. Thou should have brought
Martha up here and sent her mother to London by herself."

"Jane would not go without her."

"I'm astonished at thee! I am astonished at thee, John Hatton!"

"I did not want her to go. I said all I could to prevent it."

"That was not enough. Thou should not have permitted her to go."

"Jane thought the change would do her good."

"Late hours, late dinners, lights, and noise, and crowded streets, and
air that hes been breathed by hundreds and thousands before it reaches