the bed, communed with my own heart and was still.

CHAPTER III.

At sunrise I went down into the sitting-room, having resolved to write
to my father to join us; for I felt how much Roland needed his comfort
and his counsel, and it was no great distance from the old Tower. I
was surprised to find Lord Castleton still seated by the fire; he had
evidently not gone to bed.

"That's right," said he; "we must encourage each other to recruit
nature;" and he pointed to the breakfast-things on the table.

I had scarcely tasted food for many hours, but I was only aware of my
own hunger by a sensation of faintness. I ate unconsciously, and was
almost ashamed to feel how much the food restored me.

"I suppose," said I, "that you will soon set off to Lord N--'s?"

"Nay, did I not tell you that I have sent Summers express, with a note
to Lady Ellinor begging her to come here? I did not see, on reflection,
how I could decorously accompany Miss Trevanion alone, without even a
female servant, to a house full of gossiping guests. And even had
your uncle been well enough to go with us, his presence would but have
created an additional cause for wonder; so as soon as we arrived, and
while you went up with the Captain, I wrote my letter and despatched my
man. I expect Lady Ellinor will be here before nine o'clock. Meanwhile I
have already seen that infamous waiting-woman, and taken care to prevent
any danger from her garrulity. And you will be pleased to hear that
I have hit upon a mode of satisfying the curiosity of our friend Mrs.
Grundy--that is,'the World'--without injury to any one. We must suppose
that that footman of Trevanion's was out of his mind,--it is but a
charitable, and your good father would say a philosophical, supposition.
All great knavery is madness! The world could not get on if truth
and goodness were not the natural tendencies of sane minds. Do you
understand?"

"Not quite."

"Why, the footman, being out of his mind, invented this mad story of
Trevanion's illness, frightened Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion out of
their wits with his own chimera, and hurried them both off, one after
the other. I, having heard from Trevanion, and knowing he could not have
been ill when the servant left him, set off, as was natural in so old
a friend of the family, saved her from the freaks of a maniac,--who,
getting more and more flighty, was beginning to play the Jack o'
Lantern, and leading her, Heaven knows where, o