On that same Wednesday Reginald Morton had called at the attorney\'s house, had asked for Miss Masters, and had found her alone. Mrs. Masters at the time had been out, picking up intelligence about the great case, and the two younger girls had been at school. Reginald, as he walked home from Bragton all alone on that occasion when Larry had returned with Mary, was quite sure that he would never willingly go into Mary\'s presence again. Why should he disturb his mind about such a girl,—one who could rush into the arms of such a man as Larry Twentyman? Or, indeed, why disturb his mind about any girl? That was not the manner of life which he planned for himself. After that he shut himself up for a few days and was not much seen by any of the Dillsborough folk. But on this Wednesday he received a letter, and,—as he told himself, merely in consequence of that letter,—he called at the attorney\'s house and asked for Miss Masters.

He was shown up into the beautiful drawing-room, and in a few minutes Mary came to him. "I have brought you a letter from my aunt," he said.

"From Lady Ushant? I am so glad."

"She was writing to me and she put this under cover. I know what it contains. She wants you to go to her at Cheltenham for a month."

"Oh, Mr. Morton!"

"Would you like to go?"

"How should I not like to go? Lady Ushant is my dearest, dearest friend. It is so very good of her to think of me."

"She talks of the first week in December and wants you to be there for Christmas."

"I don\'t at all know that I can go, Mr. Morton."

"Why not go?"

"I\'m afraid mamma will not spare me." There were many reasons. She could hardly go on such a visit without some renewal of her scanty wardrobe, which perhaps the family funds would not permit. And, as she knew very well, Mrs. Masters was not at all favourable to Lady Ushant. If the old lady had altogether kept Mary it might have been very well; but she had not done so and Mrs. Masters had more than once said that that kind of thing must be all over;—meaning that Mary was to drop her intimacy with high-born people that were of no real use. And then there was Mr. Twentyman and his suit. Mary had for some time felt that her step-mother intended her to understand that her only escape from home would be by becoming Mrs. Twentyman. "I don\'t think it will be possible, Mr. Morton."

"My aunt will be very sorry."

"Oh,—how sorry shall I be! It is like having another little bit of heaven before me."

Then he said what he certainly should not have said. "I thought, Miss Masters, that your heaven was all here."

"What do you mean by that, Mr. Morton?" she asked blushing up to her hair. Of course she knew what he meant, and of course she was angry with him. Ever since that walk her mind had been troubled by ideas as to what he would think about her, and now he was telling her what he thought.

"I fancied that you were happy here without going to see an old woman who after all has not much amusement to offer to you."

"I don\'t want any amusement."

"At any rate you will answer Lady Ushant?"

"Of course I shall answer her."

"Perhaps you can let me know. She wishes me to take you to Cheltenham. I shall go for a couple of days, but I shall not stay longer. If you are going perhaps you would allow me to travel with you."

"Of course it would be very kind; but I don\'t suppose that I shall go. I am sure Lady Ushant won\'t believe that I am kept away from her by any pleasure of my own here. I can explain it all to her and she will understand me." She hardly meant to reproach him. She did not mean to assume an intimacy sufficient for reproach. But he felt that she had reproached him. "I love Lady Ushant so dearly that I would go anywhere to see her if I could."

"Then I think it could be managed. Your father—"

"Papa does not attend much to us girls. It is mamma that manages all that. At any rate, I will write to Lady Ushant, and will ask papa to let you know."

Then it seemed as though there were nothing else for him but to go;—and yet he wanted to say some other word. If he had been cruel in throwing Mr. Twentyman in her teeth, surely he ought to apologize. "I did not mean to say anything to offend you."

"You have not offended me at all, Mr. Morton."

"If I did think that,—that—"

"It does not signify in the least. I only want Lady Ushant to understand that if I could possibly go to her I would rather do that than anything else in the world. Because Lady Ushant is kind to me I needn\'t expect other people to be so." Reginald Morton was of course the "other people."

Then he paused a moment. "I did so long," he said, "to walk round the old place with you the other day before these people came there, and I was so disappointed when you would not come with me."

"I was coming."

"But you went back with—that other man."

"Of course I did when you showed so plainly that you didn\'t want him to join you. What was I to do? I couldn\'t send him away. Mr. Twentyman is a very intimate friend of ours, and very kind to Dolly and Kate."

"I wished ............