.

"Perhaps it is not surprising that my mother should be vexed, seeing
the false position in which both she and I have been placed; partly
by my fault, for I should not have accepted the living under such
conditions."

"Oh, Arthur, you would not have refused it?"

"I ought to have done so. But, Mary, you and the girls should be
ready to receive Adela with open arms. What other sister could I have
given you that you would have loved better?"

"Oh, no one; not for her own sake--no one half so well."

"Then tell her so, and do not cloud her prospects by writing about
the house. You have all had shelter and comfort hitherto, and be
trustful that it will be continued to you."

This did very well with his sister; but the affair with his mother
was much more serious. He began by telling her that he should go to
Littlebath on Monday, and be back on Wednesday.

"Then I shall go to Bowes on Wednesday," said Mrs. Wilkinson. Now we
all know that Bowes is a long way from Staplehurst. The journey has
already been made once in these pages. But Mrs. Wilkinson was as good
as her word.

"To Bowes!" said Arthur.

"Yes, to Bowes, sir; to Lord Stapledean. That is, if you hold to your
scheme of turning me out of my own house."

"I think it would be better, mother, that we should have two
establishments."

"And, therefore, I am to make way for you and that--" viper, she
was going to say again; but looking into her son's face, she became
somewhat more merciful--"for you," she said, "and that chit!"

"As clergyman of the parish, I think that I ought to live in the
parsonage. You, mother, will have so much the larger portion of the
income."

"Very well. There need be no more words about it. I shall start for
Bowes on next Wednesday." And so she did.

Arthur wrote his "one other little line." As it was three times as
long as his first letter, it shall not be printed. And he did make
his visit to Littlebath. How happy Adela was as she leant trustingly
on his arm, and felt that it was her own! He stayed, however, but
one night, and was back at Staplehurst before his mother started for
Bowes.

CHAPTER XIII.

ANOTHER JOURNEY TO BOWES.

Mrs. Wilkinson did not leave her home for her long and tedious
journey without considerable parade. Her best new black silk dress
was packed up in order that due honour might be done to Lord
Stapledean's hospitality, and so large a box was needed that Dumpling
and the four-wheeled carr