emi-respectable
streets of London, the quiet, the sordid, the dismal, mile after mile,
and street after street, till half the night was over and he was tired
out, and might have a hope of rest.

But for three whole days--days which he could not reckon, which seemed
of the length of years--during which he remained closeted in his
chambers, the whole world having, as it seemed, melted away around him,
leaving him alone, he did not have a word. He did not go home, feeling
that he must be on the spot, whatever happened. Finally, when he was
almost mad, on the morning of the third day, he received the following
telegram: "Saved--as by a miracle; doing well. Child--a boy."

"Child--a boy!" Good heavens! what did he want with that? it seemed an
insult to him to tell him. What did he care for the child, if it was
a boy or not?--the wretched, undesirable brat of such parentage, born
to perpetuate a name which was dishonoured. Altogether the telegram,
as so many telegrams, but lighted fresh fires of anxiety in his mind.
"Saved--as by a miracle!" Then he had been right in the dreadful fancies
that had gone through his mind. He had passed by Death in the dark; and
was it now sure that the miracle would last, that the danger would have
passed away?

CHAPTER XXIV.

It was not till nearly three weeks after this that John received another
brief dispatch. "At home: come and see us." He had indeed got a short
letter or two in the interval, saying almost nothing--a brief report
of Elinor's health, and of the baby, against whom he had taken an
unreasoning disgust and repugnance. "Little beast!" he said to himself,
passing over that part of the bulletin: for the letters were scarcely
more than bulletins, without a word about the circumstances which
surrounded her. A shooting lodge in Ross-shire in the middle of the
winter! What a place for a delicate woman! John was well enough aware
that many elements of comfort were possible even in such a place; but he
shut his eyes, as was natural, to anything that went against his own
point of view.

And now this telegram from Windyhill--"At home: come and see us"--_us_.
Was it a mistake of the telegraph people?--of course they must make
mistakes. They had no doubt taken the _me_ in Mrs. Dennistoun's angular
writing for _us_--or was it possible---- John had no peace in his mind
until he had so managed matters that he could go and see. There was no
very pressing business in the middle of J