tidings of her elopement
without any positive proof of a _bona fide_ marriage preceding it, had
shocked him into bitter remorse for having left her, an unprotected waif
and stray, to the tender mercies of the world, and now she had passed out
of his ken, and he could not but fear the worst.

In this frame of mind he came accidentally upon Bluebell in the spring
woods, and the likeness to her father, which was singularly obvious,
seemed the reflection of the thoughts that haunted him. Then, when Mabel
mentioned her by name, it flashed upon him that what he had taken for a
trick of imagination might be, indeed, a sober reality. Lord Bromley
sought Mrs. Barrington, and elicited, in reply to his careless inquiries,
the fact that the fair governess was a Canadian, and had come into her
family from the Markhams'. This was conclusive, and he took every
opportunity of observing Bluebell with an almost hungry interest. The
elopement rankled unpleasantly in his mind. He watched her conduct
narrowly, and was pleased to see that she seemed prudent and careful;
but his suspicions received a new direction by the mutual disappearance
of Dutton and herself on the night of his return. It was a coincidence,
at any rate, for had not Mabel asserted she had not come upstairs till
one, before which hour Harry had not entered the ball-room? He also
detected two or three looks of intelligence passing between them, then,
when Kate remarked that they had returned in the same steamer from
Quebec, the mystery began to take a definite shape. He remembered his
nephew's confession of an attachment, and his absence for many weeks
after landing. At this stage a terrible possibility obtruded itself, and
Bluebell's inviting manner, which before had pleased him, seemed all an
artful attempt to get into favour.

The accidental sight of Theodore's miniature, which stirred poignantly
the stern heart of the father, precipitated the _denouement_, and the
artless bewilderment of Bluebell under his reproaches lulled the
suspicions which her subsequent avowal of a marriage with Harry nearly
set at rest. There only remained those unaccounted for weeks, so that the
first sentence he spoke to the peccant pair, whom we left in agitated
suspense, surprised them by its calmness.

"When did this happen?" And they could not guess how anxiously he waited
for a reply.

Now Dutton had come there expressly to bring Bluebell into Lord Bromley's
presence, having resolved t