rother. Geoffrey had sent to
London for a trainer; and the whole household was on the tip-toe of
expectation to witness the magnificent spectacle of an athlete preparing
himself for a foot-race. The ladies, with Mrs. Glenarm at their head,
were hard at work, studying the profound and complicated question of
human running--the muscles employed in it, the preparation required for
it, the heroes eminent in it. The men had been all occupied that morning
in assisting Geoffrey to measure a mile, for his exercising-ground, in a
remote part of the park--where there was an empty cottage, which was
to be fitted with all the necessary appliances for the reception of
Geoffrey and his trainer. "You will see the last of my brother," Julius
had said, "at the garden-party. After that he retires into athletic
privacy, and has but one interest in life--the interest of watching the
disappearance of his own superfluous flesh." Throughout the dinner Lady
Lundie was in oppressively good spirits, singing the praises of her new
friends. Sir Patrick, on the other hand, had never been so silent within
the memory of mortal man. He talked with an effort; and he listened with
a greater effort still. To answer or not to answer the telegram in his
pocket? To persist or not to persist in his resolution to leave Miss
Silvester to go her own way? Those were the questions which insisted on
coming round to him as regularly as the dishes themselves came round in
the orderly progression of the dinner.

Blanche---who had not felt equal to taking her place at the
table--appeared in the drawing-room afterward.

Sir Patrick came in to tea, with the gentlemen, still uncertain as to
the right course to take in the matter of the telegram. One look at
Blanche's sad face and Blanche's altered manner decided him. What would
be the result if he roused new hopes by resuming the effort to trace
Miss Silvester, and if he lost the trace a second time? He had only to
look at his niece and to see. Could any consideration justify him in
turning her mind back on the memory of the friend who had left her at
the moment when it was just beginning to look forward for relief to the
prospect of her marriage? Nothing could justify him; and nothing should
induce him to do it.

Reasoning--soundly enough, from his own point of view--on that basis,
Sir Patrick determined on sending no further instructions to his friend
at Edinburgh. That night he warned Duncan to preserve the strictes