Mr.Amedroz, in his passive, but gently querulous way, was sorry that Belton was going to leave him, as his cousin had been the creation of some new excitement for him, but he said nothing on the subject; and when the time for going to bed had come, he bade his guest farewell with some languid allusion to the pleasure which he would have in seeing him again at Christmas.

Belton was to start very early in the morning,--before six, and of course he was prepared to take leave also of Clara.

But she told him very gently, so gently that her father did not hear it, that she would be up to give him a cup of coffee before he went.
"Oh no," he said.
"But I shall.

I won't have you go without seeing you out of the door." And on the following morning she was up before him.

She hardly understood, herself, why she was doing this.