t Wuthering Grange before he had ever set
foot inside the gates of the place; and hearing of it again--now, like
this--he felt that he would like to kick the young cub who could
publicly mock his father's folly in this fashion. He saw the General's
kindly old face flush with anger and mortification, and was not at all
surprised when he presently made an excuse to get away and retired
indoors.

Meantime, Cleek's plan of pretending illness had panned out precisely as
he had imagined, and was productive of the results he desired.
Essentially feminine and of a highly sympathetic nature, Lady Katharine
hovered near him, doing all in her power to ease the sufferings of one
whom she shrewdly suspected of being very near to the heart of her
dearest friend, and this naturally brought Geoffrey to the little group
surrounding him, and enabled him to study his attitude at close
quarters.

The more he saw of Sir Philip Clavering's son and heir, the better he
liked him; but although the young man occasionally turned an adoring
look upon Lady Katharine, and appeared to be doing his best to share her
evident high spirits, it was apparent to Cleek, after a moment's study,
that his attitude was for the most part assumed. He made no attempt to
get away from the others and have the lady of his heart all to himself,
and whenever he and she were for a moment separated from Mrs. Raynor and
Ailsa Lorne, he was nervous, distressed, and acted with an air of
restraint that was as puzzling as it was pronounced.

A chance remark regarding the state of Lord St. Ulmer's health brought
from Lord St. Ulmer's daughter the happy, excited remark:

"Oh, Geoff, dear, he's improving every hour, and he has been so
wonderfully kind and tender to me this afternoon that I could kiss him.
Just think, he says that things can go on now just as they did before
Count de Louvisan came; that there is nothing now to come between us,
Geoff; nothing to keep us apart for another moment!"

"Really? That's ripping!" said young Clavering, and in his effort to
appear delighted smiled the ghastliest parody of a smile possible to
conceive. It was so pronounced that even Lady Katharine herself noticed
it and looked puzzled and distressed.

"You don't seem very glad," she said, a note of pain in her voice, a
look of pain in her reproachful eyes. "_Aren't_ you glad, Geoff? And is
that why you did not come over to see me before?"

"Don't be silly, Kathie. I couldn't come any