the garden he hurried off at once, and just caught sight of Mrs.
Morris and Clara, as, side by side, they turned the angle of an alley.

"At last!" cried he, as he came up with them. "At last I have found some
one. Here have I been this half-hour in search of you all, over house
and grounds. Why, what's the matter?--what makes you look so grave?"

"Don't you know?--haven't you heard?" cried Mrs. Morris, with a sigh.

"Heard what?"

"Heard that Charles has gone off,--started for England last night, with
the intention of joining the first regiment ordered for India."

"I wish to Heaven he 'd have taken me with him!" cried the boy, eagerly.

"Very possibly," said she, dryly; "but Charles was certainly to blame
for leaving a home of happiness and affection in this abrupt way. I
don't see how poor Sir William is ever to get over it, not to speak of
leaving May Leslie. I hope, Agincourt, this is not the way you 'll treat
the young lady you 're betrothed to."

"I 'll never get myself into any such scrape, depend on't. Poor
Charley!"

"Why not poor May?" whispered Mrs. Morris.

"Well, poor May, too, if she cared for him; but I don't think she did."

"Oh, what a shame to say so! I 'm afraid you young gentlemen are brought
up in great heresies nowadays, and don't put any faith in love."

Had the boy been an acute observer, he would have marked how little the
careless levity of the remark coincided with the assumed sadness of her
former manner; but he never noticed this.

"Well," broke in the boy, bluntly, "why not marry him, if she cared for
him? I don't suppose you 'll ask me to believe that Charley would have
gone away if she had n't refused him?"

"What a wily serpent it is!" said Mrs. Morris, smiling; "wanting to
wring confidences from me whether I will or no."

"No. I 'll be hanged if I _am_ wily,--am I, Clara?"

What Clara answered was not very distinct, for her face was partly
covered with her handkerchief.

"There, you see Clara is rather an unhappy witness to call to
character. You 'd better come to me for a reputation," said Mrs. Morris,
laughingly.

"It's no matter, I'm going away now," said he, sorrowfully.

"Going away,--where?"

"Going back to England; they 've sent a man to capture me, as if I was a
wild beast, and he's there at the door now,--precious impatient, too, I
promise you, because I 'm keeping the post-horses waiting."

"Oh, make him come in to luncheon. He's a gentleman,--isn't he?