led to unforeseen consequences, Miss Headworth.' And then she
answered under her breath, as if afraid of being overheard: 'Mr.
Dutton, my poor child does not know it yet, but the man is alive!'

Mr. Dutton compressed his lips. It was the greater shock, for he had
actually made inquiries at the Yacht Club, but the officials there
either had not been made aware of the reappearance of the two
Egremonts, or they did not think it worth while to look beyond the
record which declared that all hands had perished, and the connection
of the uncle and nephew with the Yacht Club had not been renewed.
Presently he said, 'Then hers was a right instinct. There is reason
to be thankful.'

Miss Headworth was too full of her own anxieties to heed his causes
for thankfulness. She told what she had heard from Lady Kirkaldy and
from Mark Egremont, and asked counsel whether it could be Alice's
duty to return to the man who had deserted her, or even to accept
anything from him. There was an impetuous and indignant spirit at
the bottom of the old lady's heart, in spite of the subdued life she
had led for so many years, and she hardly brooked the measured
considerate manner in which her adviser declared that all depended on
circumstances, and the manner in which Captain Egremont made the
first move. At present no one was acting but young Mark, and, as Mr.
Dutton observed, it was not a matter in which a man was very likely
to submit to a nephew's dictation.

There was certainly no need for Mrs. Egremont to _force_ her presence
on him. But Mr. Dutton did think that for her own sake and her
child's there ought to be full recognition of their rights, and that
this should be proved by their maintenance.