Without a word to any one of the three persons present, all silently
looking at him, Geoffrey consulted his watch. Anne had told him to wait
half an hour, and to assume that she had gone if he failed to hear from
her in that time. The interval had passed--and no communication of
any sort had reached him. The flight from the house had been safely
accomplished. Anne Silvester was, at that moment, on her way to the
mountain inn.


CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.

THE DEBT.

ARNOLD was the first who broke the silence. "Is your father seriously
ill?" he asked.

Geoffrey answered by handing him the card.

Sir Patrick, who had stood apart (while the question of Ratcatcher's
relapse was under discussion) sardonically studying the manners and
customs of modern English youth, now came forward, and took his part
in the proceedings. Lady Lundie herself must have acknowledged that he
spoke and acted as became the head of the family, on t his occasion.

"Am I right in supposing that Mr. Delamayn's father is dangerously ill?"
he asked, addressing himself to Arnold.

"Dangerously ill, in London," Arnold answered. "Geoffrey must leave
Windygates with me. The train I am traveling by meets the train his
brother is traveling by, at the junction. I shall leave him at the