"That will do, Mrs. Presty. Your defense is thoroughly worthy of your
conduct in all other respects."

"Say thoroughly worthy of the course forced upon me and my daughter by
your brother's infamous conduct--and you will be nearer the mark!"

Randal passed this over without notice. "Be so good," he said, "as to
tell Catherine that I try to make every possible allowance for her, but
that I cannot consent to sit at her dinner-table, and that I dare not
face my poor little niece, after what I have heard."

Mrs. Presty recovered all her audacity. "A very wise decision," she
remarked. "Your sour face would spoil the best dinner that ever was put
on the table. Have you any message for Captain Bennydeck?"

Randal asked if his friend was then at the hotel.

Mrs. Presty smiled significantly. "Not at the hotel, just now."

"Where is he?"

"Where he is every day, about this time--out driving with Catherine and
Kitty."

It was a relief to Randal--in the present state of Catherine's relations
toward Bennydeck--to return to London without having seen his friend.

He took leave of Mrs. Presty with the formality due to a stranger--he
merely bowed. That incorrigible old woman treated him with affectionate
familiarity in return.

"Good-by, dear Randal. One moment before you go! Will it be of any use
if we invite you to the marriage?"

Arrived at the station, Randal found that he must wait for the train.
While he was walking up and down the platform with a mind doubly
distressed by anxiety about his brother and anxiety about Sydney, the
train from London came in. He stood, looking absently at the passengers
leaving the carriage on the opposite side of the platform. Suddenly,
a voice that he knew was audible, asking the way to Buck's Hotel. He
crossed the line in an instant, and found himself face to face with
Herbert.

Chapter XLI. Make the Best of It.

For a moment the two men looked at each other without speaking.
Herbert's wondering eyes accurately reflected his brother's
astonishment.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. Suspicion overclouded his face as
he put the question. "You have been to the hotel?" he burst out; "you
have seen Catherine?"

Randal could deny that he had seen Catherine, with perfect truth--and
did deny it in the plainest terms. Herbert was satisfied. "In all my
remembrance of you," he said, "you have never told me a lie. We have
both seen the same newspaper, of course--and you have been