from it in
horror. His last act was devoted to the tranquillity of the one woman
whom he had loved. He signed to her to leave him.

Chapter LIII. The Largest Nature, the Longest Love.

Mrs. Presty waited in the garden to be joined by her daughter and
Captain Bennydeck, and waited in vain. It was past her grandchild's
bedtime; she decided on returning to the house.

"Suppose we look for them in the sitting-room?" Kitty proposed.

"Suppose we wait a moment, before we go in?" her wise grandmother
advised. "If I hear them talking I shall take you upstairs to bed."

"Why?"

Mrs. Presty favored Kitty with a hint relating to the management of
inquisitive children which might prove useful to her in after-life.
"When you grow up to be a woman, my dear, beware of making the mistake
that I have just committed. Never be foolish enough to mention your
reasons when a child asks, Why?"

"Was that how they treated _you_, grandmamma, when you were a child
yourself?"

"Of course it was!"

"Why?"

They had reached the sitting-room door by this time. Kitty opened it
without ceremony and looked in. The room was empty.

Having confided her granddaughter to the nursemaid's care, Mrs. Presty
knocked at Catherine's bedroom door. "May I come in?"

"Come in directly! Where is Kitty?"

"Susan is putting her to bed."

"Stop it! Kitty mustn't go to bed. No questions. I'll explain myself
when you come back." There was a wildness in her eyes, and a tone of
stern command in her voice, which warned her mother to set dignity
aside, and submit.

"I don't ask what has happened," Mrs. Presty resumed on her return.
"That letter, that fatal letter to the Captain, has justified my worst
fears. What in Heaven's name are we to do now?"

"We are to leave this hotel," was the instant reply.

"When?"

"To-night."

"Catherine! do you know what time it is?"

"Time enough to catch the last train to London. Don't raise objections!
If I stay at this place, with associations in every part of it which
remind me of that unhappy man, I shall go mad! The shock I have
suffered, the misery, the humiliation--I tell you it's more than I can
bear. Stay here by yourself if you like; I mean to go."

She paced with frantic rapidity up and down the room. Mrs. Presty took
the only way by which it was possible to calm her. "Compose yourself,
Catherine, and all that you wish shall be done. I'll settle everything
with the landlord, and give the maid he