o one could come without being detected, if any one in the
room chose to watch. Hilda now took her seat on a chair from which
she could look up the hall, and thus, feeling secure from observation
or from listeners, she began, in a low voice:

"I received the Indian papers to-day."

"I was aware of that, my lady," said Gualtier, respectfully. "Did you
see any thing in them of importance?"

"Nothing certain, but something sufficient to excite concern."

"About Lord Chetwynde?"

"Yes."

"He can not be coming home, surely?" said Gualtier, interrogatively.

"I'm afraid that he is."

Gualtier looked serious.

"I thought," said he, "my lady, that you had nearly given up all
expectation of seeing him for some time to come."

"I have never yet given up those expectations. I have all along
thought it possible, though not probable; and so I have always
watched all the papers to see if he had left his station."

"I suppose he would not write about his intentions."

"To whom could he think of writing?" asked Hilda, with a half sneer.

"I thought that perhaps he might write to Lady Chetwynde."

"Lady Chetwynde's letters to him have been of such a character that
it is not very likely that he will ever write to her again, except
under the pressure of urgent necessity."

"Have you seen any thing in particular in any of the papers about
him?" asked Gualtier, after some silence.

"Yes. In one. It is the Allahabad _News_. The paragraph happened to
catch my eye by the merest accident, I think. There is nothing about
it in any of the other Indian papers. See; I will show it to you."

And Hilda, drawing a newspaper from her pocket, unfolded it, and
pointing to a place in one of the inside columns, she handed it to
Gualtier. He took it with a bow, and read the following:

"PERSONAL.--We regret to learn that Lord Chetwynde has recently
resigned his position as Resident at Lahore. The recent death of his
father, the late Earl of Chetwynde, and the large interests which
demand his personal attention, are assigned as the causes for this
step. His departure for England will leave a vacancy in our
Anglo-Indian service which will not easily be filled. Lord
Chetwynde's career in this important part of the empire has been so
brilliant, that it is a matter for sincere regret that he is
prevented, by any cause, from remaining here. In the late war he made
his name conspicuous by his valor and consummate military genius. In
the si