et. I suppose he has a
right to the boy until the mother shall have made good her claim
before the court." He promised, however, that he would do his best to
ascertain where the child was kept, and where Trevelyan resided, and
then,--having been nearly an hour at the house,--he was forced to
get up and take his leave. He had said not a word to any one of the
business that had brought him there. He had not even whispered an
assurance of his affection to Nora. Till the two elder ladies had
come in, and the subject of the taking of the boy had been mooted, he
had sat there as a perfect stranger. He thought that it was manifest
enough that Nora had told her secret to no one. It seemed to him
that Mrs. Trevelyan must have forgotten it;--that Nora herself must
have forgotten it, if such forgetting could be possible! He got up,
however, and took his leave, and was comforted in some slight degree
by seeing that there was a tear in Nora's eye.

"Who is he?" demanded Sir Marmaduke, as soon as the door was closed.

"He is a young man who was an intimate friend of Louis's," answered
Mrs. Trevelyan; "but he is so no longer, because he sees how
infatuated Louis has been."

"And why does he come here?"

[Illustration: "And why does he come here?"]

"We know him very well," continued Mrs. Trevelyan. "It was he
that arranged our journey down to Devonshire. He was very kind
about it, and so were his mother and sister. We have every reason
to be grateful to Mr. Stanbury." This was all very well, but
Nora nevertheless felt that the interview had been anything but
successful.

"Has he any profession?" asked Sir Marmaduke.

"He writes for the press," said Mrs. Trevelyan.

"What do you mean;--books?"

"No;--for a newspaper."

"For a penny newspaper," said Nora boldly--"for the Daily Record."

"Then I hope he won't come here any more," said Sir Marmaduke. Nora
paused a moment, striving to find words for some speech which might
be true to her love and yet not unseemly,--but finding no such words
ready, she got up from her seat and walked out of the room. "What is
the meaning of it all?" asked Sir Marmaduke. There was a silence for
a while, and then he repeated his question in another form. "Is there
any reason for his coming here,--about Nora?"

"I think he is attached to Nora," said Mrs. Trevelyan.

"My dear," said Lady Rowley, "perhaps we had better not speak about
it just now."

"I suppose he has not a penny in the