n. I'm sure I hope so."

He had talked himself and Vicky into quite good spirits by this time. He
was almost forgetting about his plan of running away. But it was soon
recalled to him. Elsa put her head in at the door.

"Vicky," she said, "you may come up to see mamma for a few minutes. Come
now, quick, before Geoff comes home, or else he will begin about it
again, and he just _must_ not see her for some days. Mamma sees that he
must not."

Geoff's face grew dark.

"Elsa," Vicky called out appealingly. But Elsa had already disappeared.

And then Geoffrey _quite_ made up his mind.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII.

A FORTUNATE CHANCE.

He was a sensible, practical enough boy in some ways. He thought it all
well over that night, and made what preparations he could. He packed up
the clothes he thought the most necessary and useful in an old carpet-bag
he found in the box-room, and then he looked over his drawers and
cupboards to see that all was left in order, and he put together some
things to be sent to him in case he found it well to write for them.

Then he looked at his purse. He had, carefully stowed away, thirty
shillings in gold, and of his regular pocket-money a two-shilling piece,
a shilling, a threepenny bit, and some coppers. It was enough to take
him some hours' distance out of London, where he would be quite as
likely to find what he wanted, employment at some farmhouse, as farther
away.

He did not sleep much that night. He was so anxious to be off early that
he kept waking up every hour or two. At last, after striking a match to
see what o'clock it was for perhaps the twentieth time, his watch told
him it was past six. He got up and dressed, then he shouldered his bag,
and made his way as quickly as he could downstairs. He could not resist
lingering a moment outside his mother's door; it was slightly ajar, and
there was a faint light within. Elsa's voice came to him as he stood
there.

"I am _so_ glad you are better this morning, dear mamma," she was
saying. "I hoped you would be when I went to bed, at three o'clock. You
were sleeping so peacefully. I am sure you will be quite well again
soon, if we can manage to keep you quiet, and if you won't worry
yourself. Everything is quite right."

Geoff's face hardened again.

"I know what all that means," he thought. "Yes, indeed, everything is so
right that I, _I_, have to run away like a thief, because I am too
miserable