rlor-door. The effort of concealing her true feeling toward him gave a
color and a vivacity to her face which made her irresistibly beautiful.
Bervie looked at the woman whom he had lost with an immeasurable sadness
in his eyes. "When we meet again," he said, "you will see me in a new
character." He hurried out of the gate, as if he feared to trust himself
for a moment longer in her presence.

Charlotte followed Percy into the passage. "I shall be here to-morrow,
dearest!" he said, and tried to raise her hand to his lips. She abruptly
drew it away. "Not that hand!" she answered. "Captain Bervie has just
touched it. Kiss the other!"

"Do you still doubt the Captain?" said Percy, amused by her petulance.

She put her arm over his shoulder, and touched the plaster on his neck
gently with her finger. "There's one thing I don't doubt," she said:
"the Captain did _that!_"

Percy left her, laughing. At the front gate of the cottage he found
Arthur Bervie in conversation with the same shabbily-dressed man-servant
who had announced the Captain's visit to Charlotte.

"What has become of the other servant?" Bervie asked. "I mean the old
man who has been with Mr. Bowmore for so many years."

"He has left his situation, sir."

"Why?"

"As I understand, sir, he spoke disrespectfully to the master."

"Oh! And how came the master to hear of _you?_"

"I advertised; and Mr. Bowmore answered my advertisement."

Bervie looked hard at the man for a moment, and then joined Percy at the
carriage door. The two gentlemen started for London.

"What do you think of Mr. Bowmore's new servant?" asked the Captain as
they drove away from the cottage. "I don't like the look of the fellow."

"I didn't particularly notice him," Percy answered.

There was a pause. When the conversation was resumed, it turned on
common-place subjects. The Captain looked uneasily out of the carriage
window. Percy looked uneasily at the Captain.

They had left Dartford about two miles behind them, when Percy noticed
an old gabled house, sheltered by magnificent trees, and standing on an
eminence well removed from the high-road. Carriages and saddle-horses
were visible on the drive in front, and a flag was hoisted on a staff
placed in the middle of the lawn.

"Something seems to be going on there," Percy remarked. "A fine old
house! Who does it belong to?"

Bervie smiled. "It belongs to my father," he said. "He is chairman of
the bench of local magistrate