secret from everybody but Mrs. Linley's legal adviser, who was
instructed to forward letters. But one other member of the family
remained to be accounted for. This was Mr. Linley's younger
brother, known at present to be traveling on the Continent. Two
trustworthy old servants had been left in charge at Mount
Morven--and there was the whole story; and that was why the house
was shut up.


Chapter XXIII.


Separation.


In a cottage on the banks of one of the Cumberland Lakes, two
ladies were seated at the breakfast-table. The windows of the
room opened on a garden which extended to the water's edge, and
on a boat-house and wooden pier beyond. On the pier a little girl
was fishing, under the care of her maid. After a prevalence of
rainy weather, the sun was warm this morning for the time of
year; and the broad sheet of water alternately darkened and
brightened as the moving masses of cloud now gathered and now
parted over the blue beauty of the sky.

The ladies had finished their breakfast; the elder of the
two--that is to say, Mrs. Presty--took up her knitting and eyed
her silent daughter with an expression of impatient surprise.

"Another bad night, Catherine?"