olish to give rise to them.'

Guy told nearly what he had said on the first day of his return, but
nothing could be done towards clearing up the mystery, and he returned
to Oxford as usual.

March commenced, and Charles, though no longer absolutely recumbent, and
able to write letters again, could not yet attempt to use his crutches,
so that all his designs vanished, except that of persuading his father
to go to London to meet Guy and Markham there, and transact the business
consequent on his ward's attaining his majority. He trusted much to
Guy's personal influence, and said to his father, 'You know no one has
seen him yet but Philip, and he would tell things to you that he might
not to him.'

It was an argument that delighted Mr. Edmonstone.

'Of course I have more weight and experience, and--and poor Guy is very
fond of us. Eh, Charlie?'

So Charles wrote to make an appointment for Guy to meet his guardian and
Markham in London on Easter Tuesday. 'If you will clear up the gambling
story,' he wrote, 'all may yet be well.'

Guy sighed as he laid aside the letter. 'All in vain, kind Charlie,'
said he to himself, 'vain as are my attempts to keep my poor uncle
from sinking himself further! Is it fair, though,' continued he, with
vehemence, 'that the happiness of at least one life should be sacrificed
to hide one step in the ruin of a man who will not let himself be saved?
Is it not a waste of self-devotion? Have I any right to sacrifice hers?
Ought I not rather'--and a flash of joy came over him--'to make my uncle
give me back my promise of concealment? I can make it up to him. It
cannot injure him, since only the Edmonstones will know it! But'--and
he pressed his lips firmly together--'is this the spirit I have been
struggling for this whole winter? Did I not see that patient waiting and
yielding is fit penance for my violence. It would be ungenerous. I will
wait and bear, contented that Heaven knows my innocence at least in
this. For her, when at my best I dreaded that my love might bring sorrow
on her--how much more now, when I have seen my doom face to face,
and when the first step towards her would be what I cannot openly and
absolutely declare to be right? That would be the very means of bringing
the suffering on her, and I should deserve it.'

Guy quitted these thoughts to write to Markham to make the appointment,
finishing his letter with a request that Markham would stop at St.
Mildred's on his way to Lon