ss; if that letter had
only reached the young wife's eyes it would have healed her sore heart
and kept her beside him.

For he told her everything; and he told it in such a frank, manly way,
that no woman could have lost confidence in him, though she read what
Fay was to have read in the first few lines--that he had not married
her for love. Hugh owned his unhappy passion for Margaret, and pleaded
his great trouble as the excuse for his restlessness. He had gone
away, he said, that he might fight a battle with himself, and return
home a better man; it would all be different when he came back, for he
meant to be a good husband to her, and to live for her and the boy,
and to make her happy, and by and by he would be happy too. And he
ended his letter as he never ended one yet, by assuring her that he
was her loving husband. But, alas, when that tardy explanation reached
the cottage at Daintree, Aunt Griselda only wrung her thin white hands
and cried, for no one knew what had become of Fay, and Erle was
rushing about and sending telegrams in all directions, and Fay, with
the shadow always on her sweet face, was sitting in the orchard of the
Manse, under the shade of the mossy old apple-trees, and baby Hugh lay
on her lap, gurgling to the birds and the white clouds that sailed
over their heads. When Sir Hugh had written that letter, he felt as
though a very heavy weight were off his mind, and he began to enjoy
himself. Not for long, however, for presently they reached Cairo, and
there he found a budget awaiting him. Every one seemed to have written
to him but Fay; and when he saw that, he began to tear open the
letters rather wildly, for he feared she must be ill. But by and by he
came to her letter.

He read Erle Huntingdon's first--an indignant letter, evidently
written under strong excitement--"Why had he not come home when they
had sent for him? He must know that their search had been useless;
they had no news of either Fay or the child. Miss Mordaunt was very
ill with worry, and her old servant was much alarmed about her. They
had written to him over and over again, and directed their letters to
every possible place he could not have missed. If he had any affection
for his wife and child, and cared to know what had become of them, he
had better leave Fitzclarence and the other fellows and return at
once," and so on.

Hugh dropped the letter--he was pale to the lips with
apprehension--and turned to the others.

Th