her tenderly. "You had perhaps better have a change
for a time; there is no reason why you should live for ever in the past,
like an old woman, Angela. The day will come when you may wish to make
new ties for yourself--new interests----"

Angela's whisper reached her ear alone.

"'Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after
thee,'" she murmured in the words of the widowed Moabitess, "'for
whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy
people shall be my people, and thy God my God...'"

Mrs. Luttrell clasped her in her arms and kissed her forehead. Then
after a little pause she said to Brian--

"We will stay."

Brian bowed his head.

"I will make all necessary arrangements with Mr. Colquhoun, and send him
to you," he said. "I think there is nothing else about which we have to
speak?"

"Nothing," said Mrs. Luttrell, steadily.

"Except Hugo. As I am going away from home for so long I think it would
be better if I settled a certain sum in the Funds upon him, so that he
might have a moderate income as well as his pay. Does that meet with
your approval?"

"My approval matters very little, but you can do as you choose with your
own money. I suppose you wish that this house should be kept open for
him?"

"That is as you please. He would be better for a home. May I ask what
Angela thinks?"

"Oh, yes," said Angela, lifting her face slowly from Mrs. Luttrell's
shoulder. "He must not feel that he has lost a home, must he, mother?"
She pronounced the title which Mrs. Luttrell had begged her to bestow,
still with a certain diffidence and hesitancy; but Mrs. Luttrell's brow
smoothed when she heard it.

"We will do what we can for him," she said.

"He has not been very steady of late," Brian went on slowly, wondering
whether he was right to conceal Hugo's misdeeds and evil tendencies. "I
hope he will improve; you will have patience with him if he is not very
wise. And now, will you let me say good-bye to you? I shall leave
Netherglen to-morrow."

"To-morrow?" said Angela, wonderingly. "Why should you go so soon?"

"It is better so," Brian answered.

"But we shall know where you are. You will write?"

His eyes sought his mother's face. She would not look at him. He spoke
in an unnaturally quiet voice, "I do not know."

"Mother, will you not tell him to write to you?" said Angela.

The mother sat silent, unresponsive. It was plain that she cared for no
letter from t