her before
taking further proceedings with respect to her son, who had, they
regretted to say, abused the confidence placed in him, and been guilty
of embezzlement, to what amount they were not prepared to state.

Hazel stood with her brow wrinkled, gazing straight before her for some
minutes before, with a weary sigh, she opened the second letter--Mr
Geringer's--which endorsed the information contained in the first, and
finished as follows:--

"It is very terrible, my dear Mrs Thorne; and, for my poor friend's
sake, I deeply regret that his son should so soon have shown a
disposition to go wrong. It comes the harder on me because I was the
cause of his going to these people, who took him entirely upon my
recommendation. I regret your position, of course, and beg to assure
you of my deep sympathy. Had we been related by marriage, I should
have felt it my duty to see the lad through his difficulty, the
result, I find, of folly, he having entered upon a course of betting
upon horses. As it is, you must excuse me for saying that my credit
will not allow of my having my name mixed up with the transaction."

He remained, as a matter of course, Mrs Thorne's very sincere and
attached friend; but, all the same, he had given Hazel a severe stab in
the course of the letter, which again placed her conduct in an
unsatisfactory light. Was she always to be accused of standing in the
way of her mother's and brother's prospects? And as she asked herself
that question, quietly folding the letters the while, she could not help
seeing Mr Geringer's selfishness showing through all.

But what was to be done? The people evidently meant to prosecute Percy,
and at any moment he might be taken into custody. She knew enough of
the law to see that he was in a very perilous position, and if her
mother knew, she trembled for the consequences.

"I am glad I opened the letters," she thought; "but now I know, what
shall I do?"

A host of ideas passed through her brain, for the most part wild,
impossible notions, that could not be carried out.

Percy must escape--go away somewhere; but how, and to what place?

This was unanswerable; and besides, she knew that sooner or later, the
police, if in search, would be sure to find him.

No; he must stop and face it out--it would be the most honourable
proceeding. But she wanted help--she wanted some one to cling to in
this hour of difficulty; and to all intents and purpo