He was utterly alone and miserable a minute since, and here was a home and a kind hand held out to him.

No wonder he clung to it.

In the hour during which they talked together, the young fellow had poured out a great deal of his honest heart to the kind new-found friend; when the dial told breakfast-time, he wondered to think how much he had told her.

She took him to the breakfast-room; she presented him to his aunt, the Countess, and bade him embrace his cousins.

Lord Castlewood was frank and gracious enough.