white and strange, Lady Gowan entered the room.

She looked inquiringly in the boy's eyes, and a faint sob escaped her
lips as she caught him in her arms, kissed him passionately, and then
laid her head upon his shoulder, while for some minutes she sobbed so
violently that the boy dared not speak, but tried to caress her into
calmness once more.

"Oh, Frank, Frank!" she sighed at last; and he held her more tightly to
his breast.

"I was obliged to come, mother," he said; "and now that I have come I
dare not speak."

"Yes, speak, dear, speak; say anything to me now," she sighed.

"But it seems so cruel, mother, while you are ill like this!"

"Speak, dear, speak. I ought to have sent to you before; but I was so
heart-broken, so cowardly and weak, that I dared not confess it even to
my own child."

"Mother," cried the boy passionately, "it is not true."

Lady Gowan heaved a piteous sigh.

"The Prince sent for me, thinking I helped Drew Forbes to escape."

"Ah! He has escaped?"

"Yes, gone to join his father with the rebels; but the Prince believes
me now. He asked me first if I were going to join my father with the
rebels too."

"And--and--what did you say?" faltered Lady Gowan.

"I?" cried the boy proudly. "I told him that he had no more faithful
servant living than my father, though he was dismissed from the Guards."

Lady Gowan uttered a weary sigh once more.

"Oh, mother!" cried Frank, "shame on you to believe this miserable lie!
How can you be so weak!"

"Ah, Frank, Frank, Frank!" she sighed wearily.

"It seems too horrible to imagine that you could so readily think such a
thing. The Prince believes it, and the Princess too, and she said the
news came from you."

"Yes, dear, I was obliged to tell her. Frank, my boy, I knew it when I
saw you last--when I was in such trouble, and spoke so angrily to you.
I could not, oh, I could not tell you then."

"No. I am very glad you could not, mother," said the boy firmly. "You
cannot, and you shall not, believe it. Can't you see that it is
impossible? There, don't speak to me; don't think about it any more.
You are weak and ill, and that makes you ready to think things which you
would laugh at as absurd at another time. Oh, I wish I had said what I
ought to have said to the Prince," he cried excitedly. "I did not think
of it then."

"What--what would you have said?" cried Lady Gowan, raising her pale,
drawn face to gaze in her son's eyes.