mething?"

"My dear man," said Frank, "if you will have it, it's because I want to
do exactly what I'm going to do. No--I'm being perfectly serious. I've
thought for ages that we're all wrong somehow. We're all so beastly
artificial. I don't want to preach, but I want to test things for
myself. My religion tells me--" He broke off. "No; this is fooling. I'm
going to do it because I'm going to do it. And I'm really going to do
it. I'm not going to be an amateur--like slumming. I'm going to find out
things for myself."

"But on the roads--" expostulated Jack.

"Exactly. That's the very point. Back to the land."

Jack sat up.

"Good Lord!" he said. "Why, I never thought of it."

"What?"

"It's your old grandmother coming out."

Frank stared.

"Grandmother?"

"Yes--old Mrs. Kelly."

Frank laughed suddenly and loudly.

"By George!" he said, "I daresay it is. Old Grandmamma Kelly! She was a
gipsy--so she was. I believe you've hit it, Jack. Let's see: she was my
grandfather's second wife, wasn't she?"

Jack nodded.

"And he picked her up off the roads on his own estate. Wasn't she
trespassing, or something?"

Jack nodded again.

"Yes," he said, "and he was a magistrate and ought to have committed
her: And he married her instead. She was a girl, traveling with her
parents."

Frank sat smiling genially.

"That's it," he said. "Then I'm bound to make a success of it."

And he took another cigarette.

Then one more thought came to Jack: he had determined already to make
use of it if necessary, and somehow this seemed to be the moment.

"And Jenny Launton," he said "I suppose you've thought of her?"

A curious look came into Frank's eyes--a look of great gravity and
tenderness--and the humor died out. He said nothing for an instant. Then
he drew out of his breast-pocket a letter in an envelope, and tossed it
gently over to Jack.

"I'm telling her in that," he said. "I'm going to post it to-night,
after I've seen the Dean."

Jack glanced down at it.

"MISS LAUNTON,
"The Rectory,
"Merefield, Yorks."

ran the inscription. He turned it over; it was fastened and sealed.

"I've told her we must wait a bit," said Frank, "and that I'll write
again in a few weeks."

Jack was silent.

"And you think it's fair on her?" he asked deliberately.

Frank's face broke up into humor.

"That's for her to say," he observed. "And, to tell the truth, I'm not
at all afraid."

"But a gamek