nish. I
will go back to Moleswich manfully."

Thus said Kenelm to himself, and himself answered,--"Go; for thou canst
not help it. Thinkest thou that Daces can escape the net that has meshed
a Roach? No,--

'Come it will, the day decreed by fate,'

when thou must succumb to the 'Nature which will be heard.' Better
succumb now, and with a good grace, than resist till thou hast reached
thy fiftieth year, and then make a rational choice not for thy personal
satisfaction."

Whereupon Kenelm answered to himself, indignantly, "Pooh! thou flippant.
My _alter ego_, thou knowest not what thou art talking about! It is
not a question of Nature; it is a question of the supernatural,--an
illusion,--a phantom!" Thus Kenelm and himself continued to quarrel with
each other; and the more they quarrelled, the nearer they approached
to the haunted spot in which had been seen, and fled from, the fatal
apparition of first love.

BOOK VI.

CHAPTER I.

SIR PETER had not heard from Kenelm since a letter informing him that
his son had left town on an excursion, which would probably be short,
though it might last a few weeks; and the good Baronet now resolved to
go to London himself, take his chance of Kenelm's return, and if
still absent, at least learn from Mivers and others how far that very
eccentric planet had contrived to steer a regular course amidst the
fixed stars of the metropolitan system. He had other reasons for his
journey. He wished to make the acquaintance of Chillingly Gordon
before handing him over the L20,000 which Kenelm had released in that
resettlement of estates, the necessary deeds of which the young heir had
signed before quitting London for Moleswich. Sir Peter wished still more
to see Cecilia Travers, in whom Kenelm's accounts of her had inspired a
very strong interest.

The day after his arrival in town Sir Peter breakfasted with Mivers.

"Upon my word you are very comfortable here," said Sir Peter, glancing
at the well-appointed table, and round the well-furnished rooms.

"Naturally so: there is no one to prevent my being comfortable. I am not
married; taste that omelette."

"Some men declare they never knew comfort till they were married, Cousin
Miners."

"Some men are reflecting bodies, and catch a pallid gleam from the
comfort which a wife concentres on herself. With a fortune so modest and
secure, what comforts, possessed by me now, would not a Mrs. Chillingly
Mivers ravish from