rights. If so, well. If not--I
_bide my time_," he repeated.

At the appointed hour the guardian and ward met at the depot.

The duke placed the promised letter in the youth's hand, saw him into
a first-class carriage, and there bade him good-by.

John Scott sped down into Sussex as fast as the express train could carry
him, and the Duke of Hereward went back to Hereward House, much relieved
by the departure of the youth, whose presence in London had seemed like
an incubus upon him.

The deeply injured boy had departed; but--so also had the father's peace
of mind, forever! Certainly he was now relieved of all fear of an
unpleasant ecclaircissement; but he was not freed from remorse for the
past, or from dread for the future.

He told the duchess that day at dinner that a ward had been left to his
guardianship, that this ward was, in fact, the son of a near relation,
and bore the family name, which made it the more incumbent upon him to
accept the charge; and, finally, that he had sent the boy down to Dr.
Simpson, at the Greencombe Vicarage, to read for the university.

The duchess was not in the least degree interested in the duke's ward,
and rather wondered that he should have taken the trouble to tell her
anything about him; but the duke did so to provide for the future
contingency of an accidental meeting between the duchess and the boy, so
that she might suppose him to be a blood relation, and thus understand
the family likeness without the danger of suspecting a truth that could
not be explained to her.

But the duke could not silence the voice of conscience and affection. The
deeply-wronged boy whom he had sent away was his own first-born son--the
son of his first marriage and of his only love; and he had wronged him
beyond the power of man to help! He was the rightful heir of his title
and estates, yet he could never inherit them; he had been delegalized by
his father's own hasty, reckless and cruel act; and for no fault of the
boy's own--before he was capable of committing any fault--before his
birth--he was disinherited.

All this so worked upon the duke's conscience that he could not give his
mind to his ordinary vocations.

But about this time, the duchess, through the death of a near relative,
inherited a very large fortune, principally in money.

With this she wished to purchase an estate in Scotland. And so, when
Parliament rose, the duke and duchess went to Scotland, personally to
inspect cer