ate. Some day I will find
out whether he knows anything about them, and I shall remember more by
and by.'

'It would be an immense relief if you could find out anything good about
the poor fellow,' said Adela, very glad to have found any topic of
interest, and pleased to find that it occupied his thoughts afterwards,
when he asked whether she knew the Christian name of _this_ young man,
without mentioning any antecedent, as if he had been going on with the
subject all the time.

In a few days the pair were able to meet, and to take up again the life
over which a dark veil had suddenly descended, contrasting with the
sunshine of those last few years. To hold up one another, and do their
duty on their way to the better world, was evidently the one thought,
though they said little.

Still neither was yet in a condition to return to ordinary life, and it
was determined that as soon as they were disinfected, they should leave
the house to undergo the same process, and spend a few weeks at some
health resort. Only Mary shuddered at the notion of hearing the sound of
the sea, and Malvern was finally fixed upon. Lady Adela would go with
them, and she wrote to beg that Constance, so soon as her term was over,
might bring Amice thither, to be in a separate lodging at first, till
there had been time to see whether the little girl's company would be a
solace or a trial to the bereaved parents.

Bertha, as soon as the chief anxiety was over, joined Mrs. Bury in a
mountaineering expedition. She declared that she had never dared to
leave Cea before, lest the wretched father, now proved to be a myth,
should come and abstract the child.

CHAPTER XXXIV
THE PHANTOM OF THE STATION

There was a crash in Mrs. Morton's kitchen, where an elegant five o'clock
tea was preparing, not only to greet Herbert, who had just come home to
await the news of his fate after the last military examination open to
him, but also for a friend or two of his mother's, who, to his great
annoyance, might be expected to drop in on any Wednesday afternoon.

Every one ran out to see what was the matter, and the maid was found
picking up Mrs. Morton's silver teapot, the basket-work handle of which
had suddenly collapsed under the weight of tea and tea-leaves. The
mistress's exclamations and objurgation of the maid for not having
discovered its frail condition need not be repeated. It had been a
wedding-present, and was her great pride. After du