le Cecil, and you
would not have deserted me in this crisis unless your vulnerable side,
jealousy, had been awakened. Indeed you have no cause for it. I cannot
come back to the Lake, for your father would not receive me, but shall
make no plans till I hear from you.

"Yours, as ever, devotedly,

"B."

It was three weeks before Cecil could read this letter, and the following
day Du Meresq got hers, written at her father's dictation.

It was not a soothing one for an ardent lover to receive, and Bertie was
at first furious, and considered himself very ill used. With it all,
though, he never believed that Cecil had really changed. He thought very
probably his unfortunate flirtation with Bluebell had come out; returning
his letters looked like an _acces_ of jealousy, and the one she had
written was probably prompted by the same cause.

Any way, though, he was at a dead lock. Her father, of course, would not
allow her to see him, and while she was in this mood writing was useless.
His papers were in, and tired of inaction at Montreal, he obtained leave
to go to England. He lingered time enough to have received an answer to
his letter, and, none coming, he took the first steamer homeward-bound.

Du Meresq had not acquainted his sister of his engagement to Cecil; for
being aware of the Colonel's inimical disposition, he did not wish to
draw her into any difficulty about it. She did not even know that he had
written to Cecil since he left, as the letter had fallen into her
husband's hands, who, though not intending to withhold it altogether,
considered it a document that might very well wait her convalescence.

Mrs. Rolleston wished to apprise Bertie of Cecil's dangerous illness, but
she had allowed one mail to pass, and they only recurred once a week, so
that Du Meresq was embarking at Quebec the day her letter arrived at
Montreal.

Cecil made a slow recovery. The rheumatic fever, caused by sitting so
many hours in wet clothes, and aggravated by the shock she had since
received, hung about her many weeks, and as soon as she could be moved
they took her back to Toronto. Then her father most unwillingly gave her
Du Meresq's letter. He was too honourable to destroy it; but, looking
upon him as the frustrator of his plans for Cecil, and the indirect cause
of her illness, viewed with impatience any chance of a renewal of
intercourse.

Cecil read it repeatedly; but though her heart longed to believe, her
mind