ted him. With one hand he pointed it out to
Porson, at the same moment motioning him to silence with the other.
Then, taking his brother-in-law by the arm, he dragged him back round
the corner of the house.

"They make a pretty picture there in the moonlight, don't they, John, my
boy?" he said. "Come, we had better go back into the study and talk over
matters till they have done. Even the warmth of their emotions won't
keep out the night air for ever."

CHAPTER VI

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

For the next month, or, to be accurate, the next five weeks, everything
went merrily at Monk's Abbey. It was as though some cloud had been
lifted off the place and those who dwelt therein. No longer did the
Colonel look solemn when he came down in the morning, and no longer
was he cross after he had read his letters. Now his interviews with the
steward in the study were neither prolonged nor anxious; indeed,
that functionary emerged thence on Saturday mornings with a shining
countenance, drying the necessary cheque, heretofore so difficult to
extract, by waving it ostentatiously in the air. Lastly, the Colonel did
not seem to be called upon to make such frequent visits to his man of
business, and to tarry at the office of the bank manager in Northwold.
Once there was a meeting, but, contrary to the general custom, the
lawyer and the banker came to see him in company, and stopped to
luncheon. At this meal, moreover, the three of them appeared to be in
the best of spirits.

Morris noted all these things in his quiet, observant way, and from
them drew certain conclusions of his own. But he shrank from making
inquiries, nor did the Colonel offer any confidences. After all, why
should he, who had never meddled with his father's business, choose this
moment to explore it, especially as he knew from previous experience
that such investigations would not be well received? It was one of the
Colonel's peculiarities to keep his affairs to himself until they grew
so bad that circumstances forced him to seek the counsel or the aid
of others. Still, Morris could well guess from what mine the money was
digged that caused so comfortable a change in their circumstances, and
the solution of this mystery gave him little joy. Cash in consideration
of an unconcluded marriage; that was how it read. To his sensitive
nature the transaction seemed one of doubtful worth.

However, no one else appeared to be troubled, if, indeed, these things
existed else