The words that had risen to his lips had been stopped there, as absolutely as if he had been struck dumb.

'But I need not speak just yet,' he consoled himself.

'I must try to make her feel that I am of use to her, and that she would miss me if she sent me away.

My darling! I must not risk anything by being too hasty.' He wrote two notes that night; one to his father, the other to Lady Dighton, which said, "Do come over.

I am impatient to show Lucia to you.