come the quarrel between the Colonel and the Captain, and the latter
had been taken into favour. Colonel Marrable would not have been
allowed to put his foot inside Dunripple House, so great was the
horror which he had created. And the son had been feared too as long
as the father and son were one. But now the father, who had treated
the whole family vilely, had treated his own son most vilely, and
therefore the son had been received with open arms. If only he could
be trusted with Edith,--and if Edith and he might be made to trust
each other,--all might be well. Of the engagement between Walter and
Mary Lowther no word had ever reached Dunripple. Twice or thrice
in the year a letter would pass between Parson John and his nephew,
Gregory Marrable, but such letters were very short, and the parson
was the last man in the world to spread the tittle-tattle of a
love-story. He had always known that that affair would lead to
nothing, and that the less said about it the better.

Walter Marrable was to join his regiment at Windsor before the end
of April. When he wrote to Mary Lowther to tell her of his plans he
had only a fortnight longer for remaining in idleness at Dunripple.
The hunting was over, and his life was simply idle. He perceived, or
thought that he perceived, that all the inmates of the house, and
especially his uncle, expected that he would soon return to them,
and that they spoke of his work of soldiering as of a thing that
was temporary. Mrs. Brownlow, who was a quiet woman, very reticent,
and by no means inclined to interfere with things not belonging to
her, had suggested that he would soon be with them again, and the
housekeeper had given him to understand that his room was not to be
touched. And then, too, he thought that he saw that Edith Brownlow
was specially left in his way. If that were so it was necessary that
the eyes of some one of the Dunripple party should be opened to the
truth.

He was walking home with Miss Brownlow across the park from church
one Sunday morning. Sir Gregory never went to church; his age was
supposed to be too great, or his infirmities too many. Mrs. Brownlow
was in the pony carriage driving her nephew, and Walter Marrable was
alone with Edith. There had been some talk of cousinship,--of the
various relationships of the family, and the like,--and of the way
in which the Marrables were connected. They two, Walter and Edith,
were not cousins. She was related to the family only