reconciliation. He brought his wife to
Moorworth, and rode to Redclyffe, to have an interview with his father.
Unhappily, Sir Guy was giving a dinner to the hunt, and had been
drinking. He not only refused to see him, but I am afraid he used
shocking language, and said something about bidding him go back to
his fiddling brother in-law. The son was waiting in the hall, heard
everything, threw himself on his horse, and rushed away in the dark. His
forehead struck against the branch of a tree, and he was killed on the
spot.'

'The poor wife?' asked Amabel, shuddering.

'She died the next day, when this boy was born.'

'Frightful!' said Philip. 'It might well make a reformation in old Sir
Guy.'

'I have heard that nothing could be more awful than the stillness
that fell on that wretched party, even before they knew what had
happened--before Colonel Harewood, who had been called aside by the
servants, could resolve to come and fetch away the father. No wonder Sir
Guy was a changed man from that hour.'

'It was then that he sent for my father,' said Philip.

'But what made him think of doing so?'

'You know Colonel Harewood's house at Stylehurst? Many years ago, when
the St. Mildred's races used to be so much more in fashion, Sir Guy and
Colonel Harewood, and some men of that stamp, took that house amongst
them, and used to spend some time there every year, to attend to
something about the training of the horses. There were some malpractices
of their servants, that did so much harm in the parish, that my brother
was obliged to remonstrate. Sir Guy was very angry at first, but behaved
better at last than any of the others. I suspect he was struck by
my dear brother's bold, uncompromising ways, for he took to him to a
certain degree--and my brother could not help being interested in him,
there seemed to be so much goodness in his nature. I saw him once, and
never did I meet any one who gave me so much the idea of a finished
gentleman. When the poor son was about fourteen, he was with a tutor in
the neighbourhood, and used to be a good deal at Stylehurst, and, after
the unhappy marriage, my brother happened to meet him in London, heard
his story, and tried to bring about a reconciliation.'

'Ha!' said Philip; 'did not they come to Stylehurst? I have a dim
recollection of somebody very tall, and a lady who sung.'

'Yes; your father asked them to stay there, that he might judge of her,
and wrote to Sir Guy that she was