, and say that, as I know so little of their circumstances and
surroundings, I do not feel myself competent to advise."

"Just as you please, my dear; but you must speak for yourself alone. I
shall certainly have a chat with the poor young fellow. It is the least
we can do, and I am only sorry I was not back in time to attend the
funeral I am afraid we behaved shabbily to poor Edgar while he was
alive, and I should have liked to pay him some respect in death. This
is Monday. I must attend to one or two affairs here, but I'll run down
to Leabourne towards the end of the week, and put up at the inn. Tell
Stephen I'll write later on and say when he may expect me."

Mr Loftus pushed his chair back from the table, and tossed his serviette
on a chair. He looked decidedly ruffled in temper, and injured and
sorry for himself into the bargain. If there was one thing he disliked
more than another, it was to have anything approaching a dissension with
the members of his household. "Peace at all price" had been the motto
of a character kindly enough, yet lacking the necessary strength to make
a stand for the right, and already he was beginning to doubt his own
wisdom, and to reflect sorrowfully how much less trouble it would have
involved to have taken Gertrude's advice. Half-way down the table he
stopped short, with a sudden softening of the face, and laid his hands
caressingly on the shoulders of a pale, languid-looking girl who had
been a passive listener to the late conversation.

"You had better write too, and sympathise with your poor cousins, Avice.
You wouldn't like it, would you, if _you_ were to lose your poor old
father?"

The girl smiled at him affectionately enough, but made no response until
the door had closed, when she turned to her mother with an expression of
real anxiety upon her face.

"Shall I have to wear mourning, mother! Will it be necessary?"

"Cer-tainly not! I should not dream of such a thing. It is quite out
of fashion nowadays for any but the nearest relations, and it would be a
sin to put aside all those lovely French frocks until they were
out-of-date. It would be different if we lived in the same place; but
you are not in the least likely to come in contact with your cousins. I
can't think what has made your father take up this attitude all of a
sudden; but if he insists upon going to Leabourne I shall certainly go
too. He is so carried away by the impulse of the moment that there