"what
a mother you are!"

"You understand," she said, "that it is because I believe you were
not master of yourself, and that this is the exception, not the
habit, that I am willing to do all I can for you."

"The habit! No, indeed! I never staked more than a box of gloves
before; but what's the good, if she has made a vow against me?"

Mrs. Poynsett was silent for a few moments, then she said, "My poor
boy, I believe you are both victims of a plot. I suspect that
Camilla Tyrrell purposely let you see that pebble-token and be
goaded into gambling, that she might have a story to tell her
sister, when she had failed to shake her constancy and principle in
any other way."

"Mother, that would make her out a fiend. She has been my good and
candid friend all along. You don't know her."

"What would a friend have done by you yesterday?"

"She neither saw nor heard my madness. No, mother, Lenore's heart
has been going from me for months past, and she is glad of this plea
for release, believing me unworthy. Oh! that stern face of hers!
set like a head of Justice with not a shade of pity--so beautiful--
so terrible! It will never cease to haunt me."

He sat in deep despondency, while Mrs. Poynsett overlooked her
resources; but presently he started up, saying, "There's one shadow
of a hope. I'll go over to Sirenwood, insist on seeing one her and
having an explanation. I have a right, whatever I did yesterday;
and you have forgiven me for that, mother!"

"I think it is the most hopeful way. If you can see her without
interposition, you will at least come to an understanding. Here,
you had better take this cheque for Sir Harry."

When he was gone, she wondered whether she had been justified in
encouraging him in defending Eleonora. Was this not too like
another form of the treatment Raymond had experienced? Her heart
bled for her boy, and she was ready to cry aloud, "Must that woman
always be the destroyer of my sons' peace?"

When Frank returned, it was with a face that appalled her by its
blank despair, as he again flung himself down beside her.

"She is gone," he said.

"Gone!"

"Gone, and with the Strangeways. I saw her."

"Spoke to her?"

"Oh no. The carriage turned the corner as I crossed the road. The
two girls were there, and she--"

"Going with them to the station?"

"I thought so; I went to the house, meaning to leave my enclosure
for Sir Harry and meet her on her way back; but I h