dfather had
suffered an overwhelming surprise since he went out in the morning. Mr.
Cecil Burleigh also perceived that something was amiss, and not to
distress his friend by inopportune remark, he said where he and Miss
Fairfax were going.

"Go--go, by all means," said the squire. "Perhaps you may overtake me as
you return: I shall walk slowly, and I want a word with Short as I pass
his house." With this he went on, and the young people entered the
minster, thinking but not speaking of what they could not but
observe--his manifest bewilderment and pre-occupation.

On the road home they did not, however, overtake Mr. Fairfax. He reached
Brentwood before them, and was closeted with Lady Angleby for some
considerable time previous to dinner. Her ladyship was not agreeable
without effort that evening, and there was indeed a perceptible cloud
over everybody but Mr. Logger. Whatever the secret, it had been
communicated to Mr. Cecil Burleigh and his sister, and it affected them
all more or less uncomfortably. Bessie guessed what had happened--that
her grandfather had seen his son Laurence's little playfellow, and that
there had been an important revelation.

Bessie was right. Mr. Laurence Fairfax had Master Justus on his lap when
his father unexpectedly walked into his garden. There was a lady in blue
amongst the flowers who vanished; and the incompetent Sally, with
something in her arms, who also hastily retired, but not unseen, either
her or her burden. Master Justus held his ground with baby audacity, and
the old squire recognized a strong young shoot of the Fairfax stock. One
or two sharp exclamations and astounded queries elicited from Mr.
Laurence Fairfax that he had been five years married to the lady in
blue--a niece of Dr. Jocund--and that the bold little boy was his own,
and another in the nurse's arms. Mr. Fairfax did not refuse to sit at
meat with his son, though the chubby boy sat opposite, but he declined
all conversation on the subject beyond the bald fact, and expressed no
desire to be made acquainted with his newly-discovered daughter-in-law.
Indeed, at a hint of it he jerked out a peremptory negative, and left
the house without any more reference to the matter. Mr. Laurence Fairfax
feared that it would be long before his father would darken his doors
again, but it was a sensible relief to have got his secret told, and not
to have had any angry, unpardonable words about it. The squire said
little, but those