singular haste. "Don't stop
there staring at the windows; it looks so absurd."

Andrew made no reply then, but walked sharply off with his companion
till they were some hundred yards away.

"Don't be cross with me, Franky," he said gently. "It isn't my fault,
and you ought to know. I feel it as much as you do. I always liked Sir
Robert, and you know how much I care for Lady Gowan."

Frank turned to him warmly.

"Yes, I know you do," he said, with a wild and wistful look in his eyes;
and his lips parted as if he were eager to say something particular to
his companion.

"There, don't take on about it. Things seem all out of joint with us
all; but they'll come right some day. And don't you take any notice of
me. I feel sometimes as if I'd turned sour, and as if everything was
wrong, and I was curdled. I can't help it. Perhaps the doctor's right.
You do as he said, and ask the King boldly. For some things I should
like to see Sir Robert back."

Frank made a quick gesture as if to speak out, but Andrew checked him
with a laugh.

"Oh, I mean it," he said. "I'd rather he joined us."

Frank gave an indignant start.

"There, there! Don't be cross. I won't say any more. You ask the
King. He's only a man, if he is a king; and if he doesn't grant your
petition, I shall hate him ten times as much as I do now. Why, what a
fellow you are! You're all of a tremble, and your face is quite white."

"Is it?" said Frank, with a strange little gasp.

"Yes; either thinking about that petition, or the sight of your poor,
dismal old house, or both of them, have regularly upset you. Come
along, and don't think about them. I must say this, though, for I want
to be honest: if I were placed as you are, with a father who had stood
so high in George's service, I think perhaps I should be ready to do
what the doctor said for the sake of my mother if she was alive."

Again Frank gave his companion that wistful look, and his lips parted,
but no words came; and they went on down by the water-side, without
noticing that a shabby-looking man was slouching along behind them,
throwing himself down upon the grass, as if idling away the time. And
all the while that the two lads were in the Park he kept them in sight,
sometimes close at hand, sometimes distant, but always ready to follow
them when they went on.

Frank noticed it at last, as they were standing by the water's edge, and
whispered his suspicions that they were be