The little baronet had gone to Eton, thence to Oxford, passing
his vacation abroad with his mamma--and St. Gosport had seen nothing of
them. Lady Thetford had thought it best, for many reasons, to leave
little May quietly in England during her wanderings. She missed the
child, but she had every confidence in Mrs. Weymore. The old aversion
had never entirely worn away, but time had taught her she could trust
her implicitly; and though May might miss "mamma" and Rupert, it was not
in that flighty-fairy's nature to take their absence very deeply to
heart.

Jocyln Hall was vacated, too. After that refusal of Lady Thetford,
Colonel Jocyln had left England, placed his daughter in a school abroad,
and made a tour of the East. Lady Thetford he had not met until within
the last year; then Lady Thetford and her son, spending the winter in
Rome, had encountered Colonel and Miss Jocyln, and they had scarcely
parted company since. The Thetfords were to return early in spring to
take up their abode once more in the old home, and Colonel Jocyln
announced his intention of following their example.

Lady Thetford wrote to Mrs. Weymore, her viceroy, and to her steward,
issuing her orders for the expected return. Thetford Towers was to be
completely rejuvenated--new furnished, painted, and decorated. Landscape
gardeners were set at work in the grounds; all things were to be ready
the following June.

Summer came and brought the absentees--Lady Thetford and her son,
Colonel Jocyln and his daughter; and there were bonfires and
illuminations, and feasting of tenantry, and ringing of bells, and
general jubilation, that the heir of Thetford Towers had come to reign
at last.

The week following the arrival, Lady Thetford issued invitations over
half the county for a grand ball. Thetford Towers, after over twenty
years of gloom and solitude, was coming out again in the old gayety and
brilliance that had been its normal state before the present heir was
born.

The night of the ball came, and with it nearly every one who had been
honored with an invitation, all curious to see the future lord of one of
the noblest domains in broad Devonshire.

Sir Rupert Thetford stood by his mother's side, and met his old friends
for the first time since his boyhood--a slender young man, pale, and
dark, and handsome of face, with dreamy, artist's eyes and quiet
manners, not at all like his father's fair-haired, bright-eyed, stalwart
Saxon race; the Thetfor