. I must of course go
with her. I hope that this will not inconvenience you. You can, if you
prefer not to leave your mother, come down every day by train; it only
takes an hour. Just as you please...."

Lizzie's heart was strangely, poignantly stirred. The moment had come
then; the house was to be deserted. This could only mean the end. She
herself would never return here, her little room, the large solemn
house, that walk from Saxton Square, the Round Church, the Queen's Hall,
Regent's Park....

But she gave no sign.

Gravely she replied: "I think I'd better come down with you, Lady Adela,
if you don't mind. My mother has my sister. Perhaps I might come up for
the week-ends."

"Yes. That would be quite easy. The other places, you know, are let,
but Beaminster has always been kept. The Duke has been there a good
deal. It reminds me ... I was there for some years as a girl."

Lizzie realized that Lady Adela was very near to tears; she had never
before seen her, in any way, moved. She was distressed and
uncomfortable. It was as though Lady Adela were, suddenly, after all
these years, about to be driven from a position that had seemed, in its
day, impregnable.

"Oh! don't, please don't, now!" was Lizzie's silent cry. "It will spoil
it all--all these years."

Lady Adela didn't. Her voice became dry and hard, her eyes without
expression.

"We shall go down, I expect, on Monday if Dr. Christopher thinks that a
good day."

"I hope that the Duchess----"

"My mother's very well to-day--quite her old self. I have just been up
with her. It is odd, but for thirty years she has never expressed any
interest in Beaminster. Now she is impatient to be there."

"One often, I think, has a sudden longing for places."

"Yes. I shall be glad myself to be there again."

"This house?"

"Oh! we shall shut it up--for the time Lord John will come down to
Beaminster with us. I have spoken to Norris, but to-morrow morning, if
you don't mind, we will go through things."

"Certainly."

"The house has not been shut for a great number of years--a very great
number. During the last thirty years through the hottest weather my
mother was here.

"It will seem strange ..." Her voice trembled.

"Is there anything more this afternoon?" Lizzie turned to the door.

"No, I think not. Except--perhaps ..." Lady Adela was in great
agitation. Her eyes sought Lizzie, beseeching her help.

"Miss Rand--I think it only right to say. I'm afra