that darkened Earlescourt with a cloud of shame and sorrow.

Lord and Lady Earle had gone to pay a visit to an old friend, Sir
Hugh Charteris, of Greenoke. Thinking Ronald would not reach
home until the third week in June, they accepted Sir Hugh's
invitation, and promised to spend the first two weeks in June
with him. But Ronald altered his plans; the visit he was making
did not prove to be a very pleasant one, and he returned to
Earlescourt two days after Lord and Lady Earle had left it. His
father wrote immediately, pressing him to join the party at
Greenoke. He declined, saying that after the hard study of the
few last months he longed for quiet and rest.

Knowing that every attention would be paid to his son's comfort,
Lord Earle thought but little of the matter. In after years he
bitterly regretted that he had not insisted upon his son's going
to Greenoke. So it happened that Ronald Earle, his college
career ended, his future lying like a bright, unruffled dream
before him, had two weeks to spend alone in Earlescourt.

The first day was pleasant enough. Ronald went to see the
horses, inspected the kennels, gladdened the gamekeeper's heart
by his keen appreciation of good sport, rowed on the lake, played
a solitary game at billiards, dined in great state, read three
chapters or "Mill on Liberalism," four of a sensational novel,
and fell asleep satisfied with that day, but rather at a loss to
know what he should do on the next.

It was a beautiful June day; no cloud was in the smiling heavens,
the sun shone bright, and Nature looked so fair and tempting that