of his heart, against which my head was
resting.

And then I controlled myself, and looked up into his face. 'Oh,
Philip, how ill you must have been! How worn and ill you look! Are
you well again?'

'Very nearly well, thank God!' was the reply. 'And now come and sit
down, childie, here by me, and let me tell you everything. You have
never doubted me, have you? I need not ask you, for your eyes tell me.
Only you are looking white and thin, darling. The suspense must have
tried you!'

'It is all right now,' I said. 'I am longing to hear it all.'

But Philip's explanation had to be postponed--the gong rang for dinner,
and I knew we must not keep the others waiting.

As I went up to my room to change my dress, Nelly seized hold of me.
'Oh, Hilda, I'm so glad for you! And it will come all right, though
father is shaking his head downstairs, and saying to mother he doubts
whether he ought to countenance your engagement proceeding. What is
it? has he lost money?'

'I don't know,' I answered,' and I don't care. I only know he is safe
home again, that is quite enough for me at present!'

CHAPTER XVIII

WEDDED

'My wife, my life. O we will walk this world
Yoked, in all exercise of noble end,
. . . . Indeed I love thee, come
Yield thyself up: my hopes and thine are one.'--_Tennyson._

It was after dinner, wandering arm-in-arm through the dusky garden,
that Philip told me the whole story. It appeared that a young cousin
of his whom he had promised a dying mother to befriend, had fallen into
bad company out in New York, and had accomplished several successful
forgeries for very large amounts in Philip's name. He was clerk in a
house of business out there with which Philip was connected; in fact,
he had obtained the situation for him. The forgeries were discovered
whilst Philip was with us, and though he forbade any proceedings to be
taken until he had investigated the matter himself, Ronald Stanton, the
culprit, took fright and absconded, taking with him a great deal of
money from the firm in which he was. And Philip on the impulse of the
moment determined to follow his track and save him if possible from
worse ruin. It was the wish to shield this cousin that kept him
silent, and made him leave us with so little explanation. When he
arrived at New York, he told the managers of the firm that he would be
responsible for the missing sums, and started with a confidential
servant in quest