Milly did not answer for a minute, then she stopped short, and said very
solemnly, raising her large dark eyes to the major's face,--

"I wonder if you're a prodigal son. Uncle Edward said there were some
rich ones. Have you run away from God, Major Lovell?"

"Oh, come now," said the major, pinching her cheek good-naturedly; "I
didn't bargain for this when I came out with you. You must keep your
sermons for some one else. Come along to the stables with me, and I will
give you a ride."

In an instant Milly's gravity disappeared, and a little time afterwards
she was laughing gleefully as she was being trotted round the
stable-yard on a large bay mare; but she said to her nurse when she came
in,--

"Major Lovell is very nice, but very funny, and I can't always
understand his talk, he says such difficult things."




CHAPTER VIII.


"HE AROSE AND CAME TO HIS FATHER."

Major Lovell stayed a week, and Sir Edward seemed the better for his
company, as far as his bodily health was concerned. But at heart he was
very wretched, and his cousin's influence was not the sort to help him.