il this morning. Now I see that after all I--
even I--may be the very best person to go with the boy, because,
while keeping a safe watch over him, and a cheerful house always open to
him, I shall also give him somebody to take care of. I shall be as much
charge to him almost as a woman, and it will be good for him. Do you
not perceive this?"

Helen did, clearly enough.

"Besides," continued the earl, "I might, perhaps, like to see the world
myself--just once again. At any rate, I shall like to see it through
this young man's eyes. He has not told you of our plan yet?"

"Not a word."

"That is well. I like to see he can keep faith. I made him promise
not, because I wanted to tell you myself, Helen--I wanted to see how
you would take the plan. Will you let us go? That is, the boy must go,
and--you will do without me for a year?"

"A whole year! Can not Cardross come home once--just once?"

"Yes, I will manage it so; he shall come, even if I can not," replied
the earl, and then was silent.

"And you," said Mrs. Bruce, suddenly, after a long meditation upon her
son and his future, "you leave, for a year, your home, your pleasant
life here; you change all your pursuits and plans, and give yourself no
end of trouble, just to go and watch over my boy, and keep his mother's
heart from aching! How can I ever thank you--ever reward you?"

No, she never could.

"It is an ugly word, 'reward;' I don't like it. And, Helen, I thought
thanks were long since set aside as unnecessary between you and me."

"And you will be absent a whole year?"

"Probably, or a little more; for the boy ought to keep two sessions at
least; and locomotion is not so easy to me as it is to Cardross. Yes,
my dear, you will have to part with me--I mean I shall have to part
with you--for a year. It is a long time in our short lives. I would
not do it--give myself the pain of it--for any thing in this world
except to make Helen happy."

"Thank you; I know that."

But Helen, full of her son and his prospects--her youth renewed in
his youth, her life absorbed in his, seeming to stretch out to a future
where there was no ending, knew not half of what she thanked him for.

She yielded to all the earl's plans; and after so many years of
resistance, bowed her independent spirit to accept his bounty with
humility of gratitude that was almost painful to both, until a few words
of his led her to, and left her in the belief that he was doin