sir--and a gentleman has his pleasures, and they take up his time.
But, after all, he's your own son, sir, and if you'd only come and see
him for yourself, you wouldn't let him be treated like he is----"

"You know where he is!" Sir Tancred almost shouted.

"Why, of course, sir. I told you in my letters. He's living with them
Bostocks, out Catford way."

"You must take me to him at once!" cried Sir Tancred; and he rushed
into his bedroom, and came out with a hat and stick.

"Look here, old chap," said Lord Crosland. "I'm going to clear out for
a few days. You'd like the kid to yourself at first. Then I'll come
back and share the rooms if you like."

"Oh, no; it'll be all right," said Sir Tancred, and he hurried Selina
from the room to the lift, from the lift to a cab.

They were no sooner settled in it, and the driver was getting quickly
through the traffic under the stimulus of a promise of treble his fare,
than Sir Tancred turned to Selina, and said quickly: "What do you mean
by saying that I would not let the child be treated as he is? How's he
treated?"

"I mean that he's starved and beaten, that's what I mean, sir," said
Selina. "Just what I said in my letters."

"But I was told he was in the hands of respectable people."

"Respectable!" exclaimed Selina: "but I told you in my letters all
about them, sir."

"When did you write to me?" said Sir Tancred.

"First when Miss Pamela died; and then when Mr. Vane died,"--Sir
Tancred saw how his stepmother had obtained the information which
enabled her to get possession of the child,--"and three times since
October."

"Since October!" cried Sir Tancred; he had never dreamed that the
suppression of his letters had continued after his recovery.

"I only found the boy in October," said Selina.

"Look here," said Sir Tancred, "you'd better tell me the whole story
from the beginning. I didn't get your letters."

"You didn't get them?" said Selina, and her face cleared. "I thought
you couldn't have, sir. I knew you wasn't the one to take no notice of
them. Well, it was like this, sir. When Mrs. Bostock took the boy
away, I began to worry and worry about him; I kind of pined for him.
Then I thought if I could see him sometimes, I should feel better; and
I never liked the looks of Mrs. Bostock. She looked like a drinker;
though all the time she was in Jersey with the lawyer she kept sober
enough. I had got another place in St. Hellers, but I couldn'