.

FATHER AND SON.
Mr.Caryll stayed to dine at Stretton House.

Although they had journeyed but from Croydon that morning, he would have preferred to have gone first to his lodging to have made--fastidious as he was--a suitable change in his apparel.

But the urgency that his task dictated caused him to waive the point.
He had a half-hour or so to himself after the stormy scene with her ladyship, in which he had played again--though in a lesser degree--the part of savior to Mistress Winthrop, a matter for which the lady had rewarded him, ere withdrawing, with a friendly smile, which caused him to think her disposed to forgive him his yesternight's folly.
In that half-hour he gave himself again very seriously to the contemplation of his position.

He had no illusions on the score of Lord Ostermore, and he rated his father no higher than he deserved.