she felt it. Separation indeed! What can you be thinking of?"

He was thinking of a great deal, no doubt; and his thoughts were as
bitter as they could well be. He did not wish to separate; come what
might, he felt his place should be by his wife's side as long as
circumstances permitted it.

"Let me give you a word of warning, Lady Kirton. I and my wife will be
happy enough together, I daresay, if we are allowed to be; but the style
of conversation you have just adopted to me will not conduce to it; it
might retaliate on Maude, you see. Do not again attempt it."

"How you have changed!" was her involuntary remark.

"Yes; I am not the yielding boy I was. And now I wish to speak of your
son. He seems very ill."

"A troublesome intruding fellow, why can't he keep his ailments to his
own barracks?" was the wrathful rejoinder. "I told Maude I wouldn't have
him here, and what does she do but write off and tell him to come! I
don't like sick folk about me, and never did. What do _you_ want?"

The last question was addressed to Hedges, who had come in unsummoned. It
was only a letter for his master. Lord Hartledon took it as a welcome
interruption, went outside, and sat down on a garden-seat at a distance.
How he hated the style of attack just made on him; the style of the
dowager altogether! He asked himself in what manner he could avoid this
for the future. It was a debasing, lowering occurrence, and he felt sure
that it could hardly have taken place in his servants' hall. But he was
glad he had said what he did about the separation. It might grieve him
to part from his wife, but Mr. Carr had warned him that he ought to do
it. Certainly, if she disliked him so very much--if she forced it upon
him--why, then, it would be an easier task; but he felt sure she did not
dislike him. If she had done so before marriage, she had learnt to like
him now; and he believed that the bare mention of parting would shock
her; and so--his duty seemed to lie in remaining by her side.

He held the letter in his hand for some minutes before he opened it.
The handwriting warned him that it was from Mr. Carr, and he knew that
no pleasant news could be in it. In fact, he had placed himself in so
unsatisfactory a position as to render anything but bad news next door
to an impossibility.

It contained only a few lines--a word of caution Mr. Carr had forgotten
to speak when he took leave of Lord Hartledon the previous morning. "Let
me advise yo