likely to be here; and I don't know why he should stay here
philandering away his time. I hate men in a country-house who are
thorough idlers. You had better take an opportunity of letting him
know that he has been here long enough."

All this was repeated by Lady Tringle to Mrs. Traffick, and by Mrs.
Traffick to Gertrude. Then they felt that this was no time for
Captain Batsby to produce himself to Sir Thomas as a suitor for his
youngest daughter.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE JOURNEY TO OSTEND.

"No doubt it will be very hard to make papa understand." This was
said by Gertrude to her new lover a few days after that order had
been given that the lover should be sent away from Merle Park. The
purport of the order in all its severity had not been conveyed
to Captain Batsby. The ladies had felt,--Gertrude had felt very
strongly,--that were he informed that the master of the house
demanded his absence he would take himself off at once. But still
something had to be said,--and something done. Captain Batsby was,
just at present, in a matrimonial frame of mind. He had come to Merle
Park to look for a wife, and, as he had missed one, was, in his
present mood, inclined to take another. But there was no knowing
how long this might last. Augusta had hinted that "something must
be done, either with papa's consent or without it." Then there had
come the conversation in which Gertrude acknowledged the existing
difficulty. "Papa, too probably, would not consent quite at once."

"He must think it very odd that I am staying here," said the Captain.

"Of course it is odd. If you could go to him and tell him
everything!" But the Captain, looking at the matter all round,
thought that he could not go to Sir Thomas and tell him anything.
Then she began gently to introduce the respectable clergyman at
Ostend. It was not necessary that she should refer at length to the
circumstances under which she had studied the subject, but she gave
Captain Batsby to understand that it was one as to which she had
picked up a good deal of information.

But the money! "If Sir Thomas were made really angry, the
consequences would be disastrous," said the Captain. But Gertrude was
of a different way of thinking. Her father was, no doubt, a man who
could be very imperious, and would insist upon having his own way
as long as his own way was profitable to him. But he was a man who
always forgave.

"If you mean about the money," said Gertrude, "I am q