she remained silent, 'you must answer me. This concerns me very closely.
I have a right to know if my mother has betrayed me!'

His tone frightened Audrey.

'You must not be vexed with her,' she said, rousing herself to defend
the absent. 'She is very unhappy, and of course it troubled me.' Audrey
spoke with her usual simplicity--what was the use of trying to hide it
any longer? Cyril's impetuous pertinacity gave her no chance of escape.

'And she told you that I was going away?'

Audrey bowed her head.

'It was very wrong,' he returned, still sternly. 'Whom is a man to
trust, if he cannot trust his own mother? She has betrayed my
confidence. It was cruel to me, but it was far more cruel to you--it is
that I cannot forgive.'

'No, no! You must not say that--she did not mean to be cruel, Mr. Blake.
Of course I ought not to have known this, and of course it has made me
very unhappy. But now I must ask you something. Will you not wait a
little? Things may be better--easier----' And here she looked at him
timidly, and her expression was very sweet.

But Cyril was not looking at her; he was having a hard fight with
himself. He was angry--justly angry, as he thought; nay, more, he was
humiliated that his mother should have appealed to this girl--that,
knowing her kind heart, she should have inflicted this pain on her. The
sight of her grief, her gentleness, almost maddened him, and he averted
his eyes as he answered her.

'They cannot be easier. But do not mistake my meaning--perhaps my mother
has misled you--let me put it right. No pain or difficulty is driving me
away; do not think that for a moment. However hard it might be to go on
living here, I think I could have endured it, if it were only right to
do so. But I have made up my mind that it is not right, and to-morrow
morning I shall speak to Dr. Ross.'

'Oh no, no!' and here Audrey clasped her hands involuntarily. But
Cyril's eyes were fixed on some carrier-pigeons fluttering across the
courtyard.

'It is my duty to do it, and it must be done. If Dr. Ross questions me,
I shall tell him the truth: "I must go away because I have dared to love
your daughter; and if I stayed here I should never cease from my efforts
to win her." That is what I should tell him, Miss Ross. I think he will
not press me to remain under these circumstances.' And Cyril gave a
bitter little laugh.

'Perhaps not;' and here Audrey sank down upon her chair, for she felt
weak and gidd