ain't it. Mr. Robin, there's somethin' gone wrong with 'im--an' I
don't like it."

"Nor I," said Innocent, in a trembling voice, suggestive of tears.
"Oh, Robin, you surely noticed how strange he looked! I'm so
afraid! I feel as if something dreadful was going to happen--"

"Nonsense!" and Robin assumed an air of indifference which he was
far from feeling--"Uncle Hugo is tired--I think he has been put
out--you know he's quick-tempered and easily irritated--he may
have had some annoyance in the town--"

"Ah! And where's Landon?" put in Priscilla, with a dark nod--"That
do beat me! Why ever the master should 'ave let a man like that go
on the loose for a night an' a day is more than I can make out!
It's sort of tempting Providence--that it is!"

Clifford flushed and turned aside. His fight with Landon was fresh
in his mind--and he began to wonder whether he had done rightly in
telling his uncle how it came about. But meeting Innocent's
anxious eyes, which mutely asked him for comfort, he answered--

"Oh, well, there's nothing very much in that, Priscilla! I daresay
Landon wanted a holiday--he doesn't ask for one often, and he's
kept fairly sober lately. Hadn't we better be off to bed? Things
will straighten out with the morning."

"Do you really think so?" Innocent sighed as she put the question.

"Of course I think so!" answered Robin, cheerily. "We're all