to waddle out for
his daily turn on the beach, and she put the envelope containing them,
addressed to H. Morton, Esq., into his hand, begging him to give it to
Mr. Morton himself.

Which he did, when he met Herbert trying to soothe his impatience with a
cigar.

'Here, sir,' he said, 'my daughter wishes me to give you this. I don't
ask what it is, mind; but I tell you plainly, I don't like secrets
between young people.'

Herbert tried to laugh naturally, then said, 'Your daughter is no end of
a trump, Mr. Rollstone.'

'Only recollect this, sir--I know my station and I know yours, and I will
have no nonsense with her.'

'All right!' said Herbert shortly, with a laugh, his head too full of
other matters to think what all this implied.

He wished to avoid exciting any disturbance, so he told his mother that
he should be off again the next day.

'It is very hard,' grumbled Mrs. Morton, 'that you can never be contented
to stay with your poor mother! I did hope that with the regatta, and the
yachts, and Mr. Brady, you would find amusement enough to give us a
little of your company; but nothing is good enough for you now. Which of
your fine friends are you going to?'

Herbert was not superior to an evasion, and said, 'I'm going up to town
first, and shall see Dacre, and I'll write by and by.'

She resigned herself to the erratic movements of the son, who, being
again, in her eyes, heir to the peerage, was to her like a comet in a
higher sphere.

CHAPTER XXXVI
IDA'S CONFESSION

The move to Malvern was at last made, and the air seemed at once to
invigorate Lord Northmoor, though the journey tried his wife more than
she had expected, and she remained in a very drooping state, in spite of
her best efforts not to depress him. Nothing seemed to suit her so well
as to lie on a couch in the garden of their lodging, with Constance
beside her, talking, and sometimes smiling over all her little Mite's
pretty ways; though at other times she did her best to seem to take
interest in other matters, and to persuade her husband that his
endeavours to give her pleasure or interest were successful, because the
exertions he made for her sake were good for him.

He was by this time anxious--since he was by the end of three weeks quite
well, and fairly strong--to go down to Westhaven, and learn all he could
about the circumstances of the fate of his poor little son; and only
delayed till he thought his wife could spare h