ng, Will. Can you
stay over tomorrow? Do, if you could manage it. I am glad to have you
near me."

When they parted for the night, Will asked his sister to meet him in
the garden before breakfast, and Jane nodded assent.

CHAPTER 39

The garden was drenched in dew, and when about seven o'clock, the first
sunbeam pierced the grey mantle of the east, every leaf flashed back
the yellow light. Will was walking there alone, his eyes turned now and
then to the white window of his mother's room.

Jane came forth with her rosy morning face, her expression graver than
of wont.

"You are uneasy about mother," were her first words. "So am I, very. I
feel convinced Dr. Edge has given her some serious warning; I saw the
change in her after his last visit."

"I shall go and see him," said Will.

They talked of their anxiety, then Warburton proposed that they should
walk a little way along the road, for the air was cool.

"I've something I want to tell you," he began, when they had set forth.
"It's a little startling--rather ludicrous, too. What should you say if
some one came and told you he had seen me serving behind a grocer's
counter in London?"

"What do you mean, Will?"

"Well, I want to know how it would strike you. Should you be horrified?"

"No; but astonished."

"Very well. The fact of the matter is then," said Warburton, with an
uneasy smile, "that for a couple of years I _have_ been doing that. It
came about in this way--"

He related Godfrey Sherwood's reckless proceedings, and the
circumstances which had decided him to take a shop. No exclamation
escaped the listener; she walked with eyes downcast, and, when her
brother ceased, looked at him very gently, affectionately.

"It was brave of you, Will," she said.

"Well, I saw no other way of making good the loss; but now I am sick of
living a double life--_that_ has really been the worst part of it, all
along. What I want to ask you, is--would it be wise or not to tell
mother? Would it worry and distress her? As for the money, you see
there's nothing to worry about; the shop will yield a sufficient
income, though not as much as we hoped from Applegarth's; but of course
I shall have to go on behind the counter."

He broke off, laughing, and Jane smiled, though with a line of trouble
on her brow.

"That won't do," she said, with quiet decision.

"Oh, I'm getting used to it."

"No, no, Will, it won't do. We must find a better way. I see no har