Mr. Beauleigh had already disappeared. His world lay in his library, and he was never far from it for any length of time. Now he had seized the moment when his sister was not looking to withdraw quietly, and, when she turned round, she was only in time to see the library door close softly.

“Your papa has gone again,” she remarked to her niece. “What a trying man he is, to be sure!”

She followed the pair out on to the lawn, and helped to make Carstares seat himself in a long chair under a great elm. A cushion was placed under his wounded shoulder and another at his back.

“And are you sure that you are quite comfortable?” inquired Miss Betty, anxiously bending over him.

Jack laughed up at her.

“Quite sure, thank you, madam. But where will you sit?”