'I know,' she answered. 'Indeed, I didn't cry till I sat waiting,
and it all came over me. Poor papa! and what a journey mamma will
have, and how dreadful it will be without her! But I know that it is
horrid of me, when papa and my sisters must want her so much more.'

'That's right---quite right to keep up before her. It does not sound
to me so bad, after all; perhaps they will telegraph again to stop
her. Did Claude ask her to come out?'

'Oh no! There were only those few words.'

No more could be learnt till the pony stopped at the door, and Hal
ran out to hand out his aunt, and beg her privately to persuade his
mother to take him, or, if she would not consent to that, at least to
have Macrae, the old soldier-servant, with her---it was not fit for
her to travel alone.

Lady Merrifield looked very pale, and squeezed her sister close in
her arms as she said---

'You are my great help, Jenny.'

'And must you go?'

'Yes, certainly.'

'Without waiting to hear more?'

'There is no use in losing time. I cannot cross from Folkestone till
the day after to-morrow, at night. I must go to London to-morrow,