CHAPTER XI.
When I came down before dinner I found Ralph and Charles talking earnestly by the hall-fire, Ralph's hand on his brother's shoulder.
"You see we are no farther forward than we were," he was saying.
"We shall have Marston back to-morrow," said Charles, as the gong began to sound.

"We cannot take any step till then, especially if we don't want to put our foot in it.

I have been racking my brains all the afternoon without the vestige of a result.

We must just hold our hands for the moment." Dinner was announced, and we waited patiently for a few minutes, and impatiently for a good many more, until Evelyn hurried down, apologizing for being late, and with a message from Lady Mary that we were not to wait for her, as she was dining up-stairs in her own room--a practice to which she seemed rather addicted.
"And where is Aurelia ?" asked Ralph.
"She is not coming down to dinner either," said Evelyn.

"She has a bad headache again, and is lying down.