e explained as best she could that a
letter had only just been found written to her by Raymond in July,
warning her he was in the neighborhood of Arleigh, near the old nurse's
cottage, and that she might see him at any moment, and must have money
in readiness. The instant she had read the letter she rushed up to
Arleigh, to see her old nurse, and met her coming down, in great
agitation, to tell her that Raymond, whom she had shielded once before
under promise of secrecy, had been arrested the night before.

In a quarter of an hour Mr. Alwynn and Ruth were driving swiftly through
the dusk, in a close carriage, in the direction of D----. On their way
they met a dog-cart driving as quickly in the opposite direction which
grazed their wheel as it passed; and Ruth, looking out, caught a
glimpse, by the flash of their lamps, of Charles's face, with a look
upon it so fierce and haggard that she shivered in nameless foreboding
of evil, wondering what could have happened to make him look like that.

CHAPTER XXXI.

It was still early on the following morning that Dare, forgetting, as we
have seen, his promise to Charles, arrived at Slumberleigh Rectory--so
early that Mrs. Alwynn was still ordering dinner, or, in other words,
was dashing from larder to scullery, from kitchen to dairy, with her
usual energy. He was shown into the empty drawing-room, where, after
pacing up and down, he was reduced to the society of a photograph album,
which, in his present excited condition, could do little to soothe the
tumult of his mind. Not that any discredit should be thrown on Mrs.
Alwynn's album, a gorgeous concern with a golden "Fanny" embossed on it,
which afforded her infinite satisfaction, inside which her friends'
portraits appeared to the greatest advantage, surrounded by birds and
nests and blossoms of the most vivid and life-like coloring. Mr. Alwynn
was encompassed on every side by kingfishers and elaborate bone nests,
while Ruth's clear-cut face looked out from among long-tailed tomtits,
arranged one on each side of a nest crowded with eggs, on which a strong
light had been thrown.

Dare was still looking at Ruth's photograph, when Mr. Alwynn came in.

"Do you wish to speak to Ruth?" he asked, gravely.

"Now, at once." Dare was surprised that Mr. Alwynn, with whom he had
been so open, should be so cold and unsympathetic in manner. The
alteration and alienation of friends is certainly one of the saddest and
most inexpli