er than if we wait for the postman to bring
it."

It was half an hour before Captain Clinton came out from the
drawing-room and called Rupert in. The boy had been telling the news to
Madge, having asked his father if he should do so. She had been terribly
distressed, and Rupert himself had completely broken down.

"You can come in now, both of you," Captain Clinton said. "Of course,
your mother is dreadfully upset, so try and keep up for her sake."

Mrs. Clinton embraced Rupert in silence, she was too affected for
speech.

"Do you think," she said after a time in broken tones, "Edgar can have
gone with this woman?"

"I don't know, mother; I have not been able to think about it. I should
not think he could. I know if it had been me I should have hated her
even if she was my mother, for coming after all this time to rob me of
your love and father's. I should run away as he has done, I daresay,
though I don't know about that; but I would not have gone with her."

"I cannot make out how she could have known which was which," Captain
Clinton said, walking up and down the room; "we have never seen any
likeness in either of you to ourselves, but it is possible she may have
seen a likeness in Edgar to her husband. By the way," he said suddenly,
"I must send off a telegram to River-Smith; he, of course, will be most
anxious." He took a telegram form from his desk, and after a minute's
hesitation wrote: "No anxiety as to Edgar's mind can account for his
conduct--will write fully to-morrow after I have received his
letter--shall keep Rupert here some days." Then putting it in an
envelope, he rang the bell and directed the servant to give it to one of
the grooms with orders to ride with it at once to the nearest telegraph
station.

"Now, Rupert, the best thing you and Madge can do is to go out for a
walk. You can know nothing more until the letter arrives, and it will be
better for you to be moving about than to be sitting here quietly. Your
mother had best lie down until the letter comes; it cannot be here until
five o'clock."

Madge and Rupert as they walked talked the matter over in every possible
light, the only conclusion at which they arrived being that whoever
might be Edgar's father and mother they would always regard him as their
brother, and should love him just the same as before.

"I cannot think why he ran away!" Madge exclaimed over and over again.
"I am sure I should not run away if I found that I wasn't f