ella as to certain investments, and in a pleasant
though quite formal little note he had that morning received from her
she had spoken of asking his advice as to some new plans for the estate.
It was the first letter she herself had as yet written to him; hitherto
all his correspondence had been carried on with Mrs. Boyce. It had
struck him, by the way, as remarkable that there was no mention of the
wife in the will. He could only suppose that she was otherwise provided
for. But there had been some curious expressions in her letters.

Where was Frank? Aldous looked impatiently at the clock, as Roberts did
not reappear. He had invited Leven to walk with him to Mellor, and the
tiresome boy was apparently not to be found. Aldous vowed he would not
wait a minute, and going into the hall, put on coat and hat with most
business-like rapidity.

He was just equipped when Roberts, somewhat breathless with long
searching, arrived in time to say that Sir Frank was on the front
terrace.

And there Aldous caught sight of the straight though somewhat heavily
built figure, in its grey suit with the broad band of black across the
arm.

"Hullo, Frank! I thought you were to look me up in the library. Roberts
has been searching the house for you."

"You said nothing about the library," said the boy, rather sulkily, "and
Roberts hadn't far to search. I have been in the smoking-room till this
minute."

Aldous did not argue the point, and they set out. It was presently
clear to the elder man that his companion was not in the best of
tempers. The widowed Lady Leven had sent her firstborn over to the Court
for a few days that Aldous might have some discussion as to his
immediate future with the young man. She was a silly, frivolous woman;
but it was clear, even to her, that Frank was not doing very well for
himself in the world; and advice she would not have taken from her son's
Oxford tutor seemed cogent to her when it came from a Raeburn. "Do at
least, for goodness' sake, get him to give up his absurd plan of going
to America!" she wrote to Aldous; "if he can't take his degree at
Oxford, I suppose he must get on without it, and certainly his dons seem
very unpleasant. But at least he might stay at home and do his duty to
me and his sisters till he marries, instead of going off to the
'Rockies' or some other ridiculous place. He really never seems to think
of Fanny and Rachel, or what he might do to help me to get them settled
now tha