o sooner were they out on the Colbeam
road than the horse bolted, they came into collision with a hay waggon.
And--'

'I know!'

'Captain Alder was thrown on the top of the hay and not hurt. He came to
prepare me to receive Arthur, and then went up to the house. Bertha,
poor girl, in her wild grief almost flew at him. It was all his doing,
she said; he had egged Arthur on; she supposed Arthur had bets. In
short, she knew not what she said; but he left the house, and never has
been near her again.'

'Were they engaged?'

'Not quite formally, but they understood one another, and were waiting
for a favourable moment with old Lord Northmoor, who was not easy to deal
with, and it was far from being a good match anyway. We all thought, I
believe, that the drive was the fault or rather the folly of Captain
Alder, and Arthur was too ill to explain--unconscious at first--then not
rousing himself. At last he asked for his friend, and then he told me
that Captain Alder had done all in his power to prevent his taking the
creature out--had told him he had no right to endanger his life; and when
only laughed at, had insisted on going with him, in hopes, I suppose, of
averting mischief. I wrote--Lord Northmoor wrote to him at his quarters;
but our letters came back to us. We had kept no watch on the gazette,
and he had retired and left no address with his brother-officers. Bertha
knew that his parents were dead, and that he had a sister at school at
Clifton. I wrote to her, but the mistress sent back my letter; and we
found that he had fetched away his sister and gone. Even his money was
taken from Coutts's, as if to cut off any clue.'

'He should not have so attended to a girl in her angry grief.'

'No, but I think there was some self-blame in him, though not about that
horse. I believe he thought he might have checked Arthur more. And he
had debts which he seems to have paid on selling out his capital. So, as
I have told poor Bertha whenever she would let me, there may have been
other reasons besides her stinging words.'

'And it has preyed on her?'

'More than any one would guess who had not known her in old times. I was
glad that you secured that child, Cea, to her. She seems to have
fastened her affections on her.'

'Alder,' presently repeated Frank. 'Alder--I was thinking how the name
had come before me. There were some clients of ours--of Mr. Burford's, I
mean--of that name; I think they sold an est