fashion, and brought down the
whip with a savage cut upon the horse. As the animal sprang forward,
moreover, Morris could almost have sworn that he heard the words
"kissing her," spoken in Stephen's voice, followed by a laugh from
Eliza.

Then the dog-cart vanished into the darkness, and the incident was
closed.

For a moment Morris stood angry and astonished, but reflecting that
in this wind his ears might have deceived him, and that, at any rate,
Stella had heard nothing through her thick frieze hood, he once more
offered his arm and walked forward.

The next day was Sunday, when, as usual, he escorted Stella to
church. The Layards were there also, but he noticed that, somewhat
ostentatiously, they hurried from the building immediately on the
conclusion of the service, and it struck him that this demonstration
might have some meaning. Eliza, whom he afterwards observed, engaged
apparently in eager conversation with a knot of people on the roadway,
was, as he knew well, no friend to him, for reasons which he could
guess. Nor, as he had heard from various quarters, was she any friend of
Stella Fregelius, any more than she had been to Jane Rose. It struck him
that even now she might be employed in sowing scandal about them both,
and for Stella's sake the thought made him furious. But even if it were
so he did not see what he could do; therefore he tried to think he was
mistaken, and to dismiss the matter from his mind.

Colonel Monk had written to say that he was coming home on the
Wednesday, but he did not, in fact, put in an appearance till the
half-past six train on the following Saturday evening, when he arrived
beautifully dressed in the most irreproachable black, and in a very good
temper.

"Ah, Morris, old fellow," he said, "I am very pleased to see you again.
After all, there is no place like home, and at my time of life nothing
to equal quiet. I can't tell you how sick I got of that French hole. If
it hadn't been for Mary, and my old friend, Lady Rawlins, who, as usual,
was in trouble with that wretched husband of hers--he is an imbecile
now, you know--I should have been back long before. Well, how are you
getting on?"

"Oh, pretty well, thank you, father," Morris answered, in that rather
restrained voice which was natural to him when conversing with his
parent. "I think, I really think I have nearly perfected my aerophone."

"Have you? Well, then, I hope you will make something out of it after
all th