o see you again."

She looked Brooks in the face as she held his hand, and With a little
start he realized that she knew.

"You most quixotic of young men," she exclaimed, "come home with us at
once, and explain how you dared to avoid us all this time. What a ghost
you look. I hope it is your conscience. Don't pretend you can't sit
with your back to the horse, but get in there, sir, and--James, the
little seat--and make yourself as comfortable as you can. Home, James!
Upon my word, Mr. Brooks, you look like one of those poor people whom
you have been working for in the slums. If starvation was catching, I
should think that you had caught it. You must try my muffins."

Sybil caught his eye, and laughed.

"Mother hasn't altered much, has she?" she asked.

CHAPTER II

MR. LAVILETTE INTERFERES

"What is this Kingston Brooks' affair that Lavilette has hold of now?"
yawned a man over his evening papers. "That fellow will get into
trouble if he doesn't mind."

"Some new sort of charity down in the East End," one of the little group
of club members replied. "Fellow has a lot of branches, and tries to
make 'em a sort of family affair. He gets a pile of subscriptions, and
declines to publish a balance-sheet. Lavilette seems to think there's
something wrong somewhere."

"Lavilette's such a suspicious beggar," another man remarked. "The
thing seems all right. I know people who are interested in it, who say
it's the most comprehensive and common-sense charity scheme of the day."

"Why doesn't he pitch into Lavilette, then? Lavilette's awfully
insulting. Brooks the other day inserted an acknowledgment in the
papers of the receipt of one thousand pounds anonymous. You saw what
Lavilette said about it?"

"No. What?"

"Oh, he had a little sarcastic paragraph--declined to believe that Brooks
had ever received a thousand pounds anonymously--challenged him to give
the number of the note, and said plainly that he considered it a fraud.
There's been no reply from Brooks."

"How do you know?"

"This week's Verity. Here it is!"

"We have received no reply from Mr. Kingston Brooks up to going to
press with respect to our remark concerning the thousand pounds alleged
to have been received by him from an anonymous giver. We may add that
we scarcely expected it. Yet there is another long list of
acknowledgments of sums received by Mr. Brooks this morning. We are
either the most credulous nation in the world, or there are a