apping of the Matterhorn in mist; it
only widened the field of apprehension; and yet it was not for me to go
to the boy. My unrest was further aggravated by a letter which I had
just received from the boy's mother in answer to my first to her. It was
not a very dreadful letter; but I only trusted that no evil impulse had
caused Catherine to write in anything like the same strain to Bob; for
neither was it a very charitable letter, nor one that a man could be
glad to get from the woman whom he had set out on an enduring pinnacle.
There was only this to be said for it, that years ago I had sought in
vain for a really human weakness in Catherine Evers, and now at last I
had found one. She was rather too human about Mrs. Lascelles.

I looked for Bob both at and after dinner, but we were never within
speaking distance and I fancied he avoided even my eye. What had Mrs.
Lascelles said? He looked redder and browner and rougher in the face,
but I heard that he would hardly open his lips at table, that he was
almost surly on the subject of his exploit. Everybody else appeared to
me to be speaking of it, or of Bob himself; but I had him on my nerves
and may well have formed an exaggerated impression about it all. Only I
do not forget some of the things I did overhear that day, and night; and
they now had the effect of sending me in search of Bob, since Bob would
not come near me. "I will have it out with him," I grimly decided, "and
then get out of this myself by the first train going." I had had quite
enough of the place that had enchanted me up to the last four-and-twenty
hours. I began to see myself back in Elm Park Gardens. There, at least,
if also there alone, I should get some credit for what I had done.

It was no use looking for Bob upon the terrace now; yet I did look
there, among other obvious places, before I could bring myself to knock
at his door. There was a light in his room, so I knew that he was there,
and he cried out admittance in so sharp a tone that I fancied he also
knew who knocked. I found him packing in his shirt-sleeves. He received
me with a stare in exact keeping with his tone. What on earth had Mrs.
Lascelles said?

"Going away?" I asked, as a mere preliminary, and I shut the door behind
me. Bob followed the action with raised eyebrows, then flung me the
shortest possible affirmative, as he bent once more over the suit-case on
the bed.

But in a few seconds he looked up.

"Anything I can do for y