had soon learned, like
Frank, to address him as uncle.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XV.

THE MISSING HEIR.

IT was a long time before the house in Eaton Square in any way recovered
its former appearance. Captain Bayley had lost much of his life and
vivacity, and, as the servants remarked to each other, nothing seemed to
put him out. He went for his morning ride in the Park, or his afternoon
visit to the Club, as usual, but his thoughts seemed far away; he passed
old friends without seeing them, and if stopped he greeted them no
longer with a cheery ring in his voice, or a quick smile of welcome.
Every one who knew him remarked that Bayley was going down hill terribly
fast, and was becoming a perfect wreck.

Frank's name was never now mentioned in the house. Its utterance had not
been forbidden, but it had been dropped as a matter concerning which a
hopeless disagreement existed. Alice had changed almost as much as her
uncle. Her spirits were gone; her voice was no longer heard singing
about the house; she no longer ran up and down the stairs with quick
springing footsteps, and indeed seemed all at once to have changed from
a young girl into a young woman. Sometimes, as she sat, the tears filled
her eyes and rolled fast down her cheeks; at other times she would walk
about with her eyebrows knitted, and hands clenched, and lips pursed
together, a little volcano of suppressed anger.

Although no discussion on the subject had taken place between her and
her guardian, it was an understood thing that she maintained her
opinion, and that she regarded Fred Barkley as an enemy. If she happened
to be in the room when he was announced, she would rise and leave it
without a word; if he remained to a meal, she would not make her
appearance in the dining or drawing rooms.

"Alice still regards me as the incarnation of evil," Fred said, with a
forced laugh, upon one of those occasions.

"The child is a trump," Captain Bayley said warmly, "a warm lover and a
good hater. What a thing it is," he said, with a sigh, "to be at an age
when trust and confidence are unshakable, and when nothing will persuade
you that what you wish to believe is not right; what would I not give
for that child's power of trust?"

The household in Eaton Square were almost unanimous in Frank's favour.
His genial, hearty manners rendered him a universal favourite with the
servants; and although none knew the causes of Frank's sudden
disappearance, t