any conversation. She knew that
Honor's heart must be too full for speech, and that the truest kindness
was to leave her alone.

CHAPTER XVI

A Rash Step

Honor's sleep was undoubtedly of a very pretended description. She lay
still in bed, pressing her hand to her burning head, to try to calm the
throbbing in her temples and allow herself to think collectedly. She
must decide upon what course she meant to take, for matters could not
go on thus any longer. Before nine o'clock to-morrow morning she must
again face Miss Maitland, and take her choice between betraying Dermot
and her expulsion from St. Chad's. In either case, the danger to her
brother seemed great. If Miss Cavendish wrote to Major Fitzgerald,
asking him to remove his daughter from the College, he would naturally
come over to Chessington and make full enquiries as to the reason. She
would not be able to face her father's questions, and Dermot's secret
would come out, after all. How might this most fatal consummation be
avoided?

"If I were only at home, instead of here, then Father wouldn't be able
to go and call at Orley Grange," she said to herself.

It was a new idea. She wondered she had not thought of it before. She
would solve the problem by running away! She would thus meet her father
at Kilmore Castle, instead of in Miss Maitland's presence at St.
Chad's; and could avoid many awkward questions, simply saying she had
been accused of taking a sovereign, and leaving out Dermot's part in
the story altogether.

The prospect was immensely attractive. She felt scarcely capable of
once more confronting the cold scorn of her companions. Home seemed a
haven of refuge, an ark in the midst of a deluge of trouble, the one
place in the wide world where she could fly for help. Perhaps her
mother might be better, and well enough to see her, and she could then
pour out her perplexities into sympathetic ears. But how to get to
Ireland? It was impossible to travel without money, and she had less
than a shilling left in her purse. She knew, however, that a line of
steamboats ran from Westhaven to Cork; if she could walk to the former
place she thought she could persuade the captain of one of the vessels
to take her to Cork by promising that her father's solicitor, who lived
there, would pay for her when she arrived. Mr. Donovan had often been
on business at Kilmore Castle; she knew the address of his office, and
was sure that he would advance her suffici