HOW MAURICE GIVES WAY TO TEMPER, AND HOW LADY RYLTON PLANTS A SHAFT OR TWO.

AND HOW MARGARET SAYS A WORD IN SEASON, AND HOW IN RETURN COLONEL NEILSON SAYS A WORD TO HER.
Maurice goes straight to his mother's room, not from a sense of duty, but a desire to clinch the matter finally.

Lady Rylton would be the last person to permit backsliding where her own interests were concerned, and perhaps---- He does not exactly say it to himself in so many words, but he feels a certain dread of the moment when he shall be alone--a prey to thought.

What if he should regret the move he had taken, to the extent of wanting it undone?
His step grows quicker as he approaches his mother's room.

His interview with her is of the slightest--a bare declaration of the fact.