little delicate boy,
not nine till April, who had never been out of his mother's care! Lady
Markland suffered a great deal from these attacks, and she tried hard,
by getting up early, by sitting up late, to find time for Geoff, as of
old; but Geoff himself had fallen into the new ways, and the lessons
languished. What was she to do?

And then it was that the alternative of a tutor was suggested to her.
A tutor! That did not seem so terrible. She confided her troubles to
Warrender, who had fallen into the way of riding over to Markland two or
three times a week, of checking Dickinson's accounts for her, and
looking up little bits of law as between landlord and tenant, and doing
his best to make himself necessary; not with any deep-laid plan, but
only because to be near her, and serve her, was becoming more and more
the desire of his life. Warrender was not fond of Geoff. It is possible,
indeed, that his spirits rose with a sense of relief at the suggestion
of sending that inevitable third in all their interviews away; but he
was at that stage when the wish of a person beloved is strong enough in
a young mind to make all endurance possible, and to justify the turning
upside down of heaven and earth. He had replied boldly that there would
be nothing more easy than to find a tutor; that he himself would go
to town, and make inquiries; and that she need contemplate the other
dreadful alternative no more. Lady Markland was more grateful to Theo
than words could say, and she told all her friends, with a serene
countenance, that she had made up her mind to the tutor. It is a great
thing to have made up one's mind. It gave a satisfaction and calm to her
spirits that nothing else could have done. Indeed, she was so satisfied
that she avoided the subject thereafter, and said nothing more to
Warrender, who had constituted himself her agent, and took great care
not to question him about what he had been doing in London, when she
heard that he had been there. For after all, to come to a determination
is the great thing. The practical part may be put in operation at any
moment. What is really necessary is to make up one's mind.

Something of the same feeling moved Warrender when he returned from that
expedition to London, which has been already recorded. Dick Cavendish's
suggestion had been to him a suggestion from heaven. But when he returned
home, and as he began to think, there were a great many secondary matters
to be taken into