his brother's angry message. Had Herbert heard something
said, among gossiping members in the smoking-room, which might account
for his conduct? If Randal had belonged to the club he would have
gone there to make inquiries. How could he get the information that he
wanted, in some other way?

After considering it for a while, he remembered the dinner that he had
given to his friend Sarrazin on his return from the United States, and
the departure of the lawyer to his club, with a purpose in view which
interested them both. It was the same club to which Herbert belonged.
Randal wrote at once to Mr. Sarrazin, mentioning what had happened, and
acknowledging the anxiety that weighed on his mind.

Having instructed Malcolm to take the letter to the lawyer's house,
and, if he was not at home, to inquire where he might be found, Randal
adopted the readiest means of composing himself, in the servant's
absence, by lighting his pipe.

He was enveloped in clouds of tobacco-smoke--the only clouds which we
can trust never to prove unworthy of our confidence in them--when Mrs.
Presty's letter caught his attention. If the month had been January
instead of July, he would have thrown it into the fire. Under present
circumstances, he took it up and read it:

"I bear no malice, dear Randal, and I write to you as affectionately as
if you had kept your temper on the occasion when we last met.

"You will be pleased to hear that Catherine was as thoroughly distressed
as you could wish her to be, when it became my disagreeable duty to
mention what had passed between us, by way of accounting for your
absence. She was quite unable to rally her spirits, even with dear
Captain Bennydeck present to encourage her.

"'I am not receiving you as I ought,' she said to him, when we began
dinner, 'but there is perhaps some excuse for me. I have lost the regard
and esteem of an old friend, who has cruelly wronged me.' From motives
of delicacy (which I don't expect you to understand) she refrained from
mentioning your name. The prettiest answer that I ever heard was the
answer that the Captain returned. 'Let the true friend,' he said, 'take
the place in your heart which the false friend has lost.'

"He kissed her hand. If you had seen how he did it, and how she looked
at him, you would have felt that you had done more toward persuading my
daughter to marry the Captain than any other person about her, myself
included. You had deserted her; you had t