He hid them away; not a creature had seen them.  The old mother, who had been present throughout the confession, took the papers from a drawer and handed them to Robert Audley.

The note to Robert said that something had happened to the writer, he could not tell what, which drove him from England, a broken-hearted man, to seek some corner of the earth where he might live and die unknown and forgotten.  He left his son in his friend’s hands, knowing that he could leave him to no truer guardian.  The second note was addressed “Helen,” saying, “May God pity and forgive you for that which you have done to-day, as truly as I do.  Rest in peace.  You shall never hear from me again.  I leave England, never to return.—­G.  T.”

Luke Marks died that afternoon.  Robert Audley wrote a long letter the same evening, addressed to Madame Taylor, in which he told the story related by Marks; and as soon as possible he went down to Dorsetshire to inform George Talboys’s father that his son was alive.  He stayed five weeks at Grange Heath, and the love which had come to him at first sight of Clara Talboys rapidly ripened.

Consent to the marriage was given, with a blessing by the old Roman-minded squire, and the pair agreed to go on their honeymoon trip to Australia to look for the son and brother.  Robert returned for the last time to his bachelor chambers in the Temple.  He was told that a visitor was waiting for him.  The visitor was George Talboys, and he opened his arms to his lost friend with a cry of delight and surprise.  The tale was soon told.  When George fell into the well he was stunned and bruised, and his arm broken.  After infinite pains and difficulties he climbed to the top and hid in a clump of laurel bushes till the arrival of Luke Marks.  He had not been to Australia after all, but had exchanged his berth on board the Victoria Regia for another in a ship bound for New York.  There he remained for a time till he yearned for the strong clasp of the hand which guided him through the darkest passage of his life.

Two years passed.  In a fairy cottage on the banks of the Thames, between Teddington Lock and Hampton Bridge, George Talboys lives with his sister and brother-in-law, the latter having now obtained success at the Bar.  Georgey pays occasional visits from Eton to play with a pretty baby cousin.  It is a year since a black-edged letter came to Robert Audley, announcing that Madame Taylor had died after a long illness, which Monsieur Val described as maladie de longueur.  Sir Michael Audley lives in London with Alicia, who is very shortly to become the wife of Sir Harry Towers, a sporting Herts baronet.

* * * * *

EDWARD BRADLEY ("CUTHBERT BEDE”)

The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green