h, father," sobbed Nell. "Oh, father's face; oh, father's face."

She hid her head on Molly's shoulder and moaned in the most
broken-hearted way. Boris, too, looked very pale. He remembered the
pressure of the hand which had held his the night before. He heard the
words which were commonplace enough, once again, and he saw the haggard
lines round the lips and round the kindly eyes.

Boris slipped away from his own side of the table. He went up to Nell
and began to kiss her.

"I know," he said. "I understand. I saw him, too; but he'll be all right
by-and-by. It's like a big battle, but he'll not flinch; father's made
of the stuff that soldiers have in them. He'll be all right by-and-by."

"I wish you'd let me look at that letter, Jane Macalister," said Guy.

Guy was the heir of the Towers. It was his property and all his future,
which that letter seemed suddenly to deprive him of. He was the last boy
in the world to think first of himself; but now his head did feel a
little dizzy. If, it seemed to him up to this moment, there was a solid
fact in all the world, it was that in due time he should step into his
father's shoes and become Squire Lorrimer of the Towers.

Molly instantly understood the tone of Guy's voice. She started up, and
going to Jane took the letter; then she went to Guy, and put her arm
round his neck.

"Let's come into the garden and read it together," she said.

He stumbled up and went with her as if he were blind. They went out
through the open window and down the lawn, and Molly read the letter
aloud once again.

"Well, it's all up," she said when she had finished. "I have been
expecting it for a long time--a long time; haven't you, Guy?"

"No," answered Guy. "That's the awful part to me; it's such a sudden
blow. I knew, of course, there were money difficulties; but, then,
somehow or other, most fellows' fathers seem to have got them; and I was
so busy with my books and keeping ahead of the other fellows in form
that I didn't fret specially. I never wanted to think of myself
specially; but sometimes the thought used to cross my mind that there
might be a difficulty about my going to Cambridge by-and-by, and, of
course, I knew that Eton was quite out of the question; but that was
the worst, the very worst, that I thought could happen to me, and
now--now."

"Poor Guy," said Molly. "You'll never be Squire Lorrimer of the Towers."

"Oh, of course, that doesn't matter," said Guy, in a would-be