do!

"Your loving,
"CIS."

"P.S.--If you don't come we'll run away to the gipsies on the common."

"The scoundrel! I'll go and thrash him within an inch of his life!"
cried De Burgh, when they had finished this epistle.

"I should like to do it myself," said Katherine in a low fierce tone,
starting up and crushing the letter in an angry grip.

"By Jove! I wish you could, I fancy you'd punish him pretty severely,"
returned De Burgh admiringly.

"I must go--go at once," continued Katherine, her lips trembling, her
lustrous eyes filling. "Think of the tender, fragile, sweet boy--who is
an angel in nature--beaten by a _dog_ like that! Lord de Burgh, I must
leave you, I must go at once."

"Yes, of course," said De Burgh, standing between her and the door; "but
not alone. May I come with you?"

Katherine paused, and put her hand to her head.

"No, I think you had better not."

"I will do whatever you like. Take Miss Payne with you--she is a shrewd
woman--and consult with her what you had better do. Shall you remove the
boys?"

She paused again before replying, looking rapidly, despairingly round.
These changes had cost her a good deal, and she had not much to go on
with unless she broke into the deposit which she hoped to preserve
intact for a long time to come.

"I do not know where to put them," she said, and there was a sound of
tears in her voice.

"You can do whatever you choose," said De Burgh, emphatically, "only,
while you are driving down to this confounded place, make up your mind
what to do. I wish you would feel yourself free to do anything or pay
anything. While you are dressing, I will go round to Miss Payne and
bring her back with me; then you must take my carriage, it will save
time; and don't exaggerate the effects of this whipping, a few impatient
cuts with a cane over his jacket would not hurt him much."

"Hurt him, no; crush and terrify him, yes. It will be months before he
can forget it; and I told the head master of Charlie's peculiarly
nervous temperament--this man seems to be an assistant. I will take your
advice, Lord de Burgh, and make some plan with Miss Payne. I hope she
will be able to come."

"She must--she shall," cried De Burgh, impetuously, and he hastily left
the room.

By the time Katherine had put on her out-door dress, and written an
explanatory line to Mrs. Needham, De Burgh returned with Miss Payne.

"Y