ves, and gave her all the help in his power. And Lady Markland
let no grass grow under her feet. She began proceedings at once with an
energy which nobody had expected from her. The horses were sold, and
the establishment reduced without any delay. The two other houses, both
expensive,--the villa in the Isle of Wight, the shooting-box in the
Highlands,--both of which had been necessary to Lord Markland's pursuits,
were let as soon as it was possible to secure tenants. And Geoff and his
mother began, in one wing of the big barracks at Markland, a life not
much different from their past life, except in so far that it was free
from interruption and anxiety. The pang of loss in such a case does not
last; and Lady Markland entered with all the zest of an active-minded
and intelligent woman into the work from which she had been debarred all
her previous life. No man, perhaps,--seeing that men can always find
serious occupation when they choose to do so,--can throw himself with
the same delight into unexpected work as such a woman can do, a woman to
whom it is salvation from many lesser miseries, as well as an advantage
in itself. She had known nothing hitherto, except that everything was
going badly, and that she was helpless to interfere, to arrest the ruin
which stared them in the face. And now to feel that she might stop that
ruin, might even make up for all the losses of the past, and place
her son in the position his father had lost, was a happiness beyond
description, and gave new life and exhilaration to all her thoughts.

This change, however, occasioned other changes, which marked the alteration
from the old life to the new with difficulties and embarrassments which
were inevitable. One of those, and the most important, has been already
indicated. It concerned Geoff. The change in Geoff's existence was
great. Into the morning-room, where his mother and he had constantly sat
together, where he had his lessons, where all the corners were full of
his toys, where his little life had been spent from morning till night
in such a close and absorbing companionship as can only exist between a
parent and an only child, there suddenly intruded things and thoughts
with which Geoff had little to do. First came a large writing table,
occupying the centre of the room, with all sorts of drawers full of
papers, and so many letters and notes and account-books that Geoff
looked with astonishment, mingled with awe and admiration, at the w