CHAPTER XI.
Linley Asserts His Authority.
On the evening of Monday in the new week, the last of the visitors had left Mount Morven.

Mrs.Linley dropped into a chair (in, what Randal called, "the heavenly tranquillity of the deserted drawing-room") and owned that the effort of entertaining her guests had completely worn her out.

"It's too absurd, at my time of life," she said with a faint smile; "but I am really and truly so tired that I must go to bed before dark, as if I was a child again." Mrs.Presty--maliciously observant of the governess, sitting silent and apart in a corner--approached her daughter in a hurry; to all appearance with a special object in view.

Linley was at no loss to guess what that object might be.

"Will you do me a favor, Catherine ?" Mrs.Presty began.
"I wish to say a word to you in your own room." "Oh, mamma, have some mercy on me, and put it off till to-morrow!" Mrs.Presty reluctantly consented to this proposal, on one condition.
"It is understood," she stipulated "that I am to see you the first thing in the morning ?" Mrs.Linley was ready to accept that condition, or any condition, which promised her a night of uninterrupted repose.