"Nonsense, sir! Leaving London before the close of the session!
Impossible! But we can get his address and follow him, I suppose? I will
see Harbury to-night!"

"It will be useless," said Hubert, with resignation, "but, if you
insist----"

"I do insist! The honor of my house is at stake, and I shall do my
utmost to bring that ruffian to the gallows! I cannot understand you
young fellows of the present day, cold-blooded, effeminate, without
natural affection--I cannot understand it, I say. Ring the bell for
Saunders; tell him to put up my bag. I will go at once--this very
moment--this----"

The General's voice suddenly faltered and broke. For some time his words
had been almost unintelligible; they ran into one another, as if his
tongue was not under the control of his will. His face, first red, then
purple, was nearly black, and a slight froth was showing itself upon his
discolored lips. As his sister and cousin looked at him in alarm, they
saw that he staggered backwards as if about to fall. Hubert sprang
forward and helped him to his chair, where he lay back, with his eyes
half closed, breathing stertorously, and apparently almost unconscious.
The rage, the excitement, had proved too much for his physical strength;
he was on the verge, if he had not absolutely succumbed to it, of an
apoplectic fit.

The doctor was sent for in haste. All possibility of the General's
expedition to London was out of the question, very much to Miss Vane's
relief. She had been dreading an illness of this kind for some days, and
it was this fear which had caused her to telegraph for Hubert before
breaking to her brother the news that she herself had learned the night
before. She had seen her father die of a similar attack, and had been
roused to watchfulness by symptoms of excitement in her brother's manner
during the last few days. The blow had fallen now, and she could only be
thankful that matters were no worse.

When the doctor had come--he was met half-way up the drive by the
messenger, on his way to pay a morning visit to Mrs. Sydney--and when he
had superintended the removal of the General to his room, Hubert was
left for a time alone. He quitted the dining-room and made his way to
his favorite resort at Beechfield Hall--a spacious conservatory which
ran the whole length of one side of the house. Into this conservatory,
now brilliant with exotics, several rooms opened, one after another--a
small breakfast-room, a study, a libra