“But I will,” he said in a low voice; and then he went to the other end of the room, for Mrs. Kavanagh was calling him to help her in finding something she had lost.

Before he left that evening Mrs. Lorraine said to him, “We go by the night-mail to Paris to-morrow night, and we shall dine here at five.  Would you have the courage to come up and join us in that melancholy ceremony?”

“Oh yes,” he said, “if I may go down to the station to see you away afterward.”

“I think if we got you so far we should persuade you to go with us,” Mrs. Kavanagh said with a smile.

He sat silent for a minute.  Of course she could not seriously mean such a thing.  But at all events she would not be displeased if he crossed their path while they were actually abroad.

“It is getting too late in the year to go to Scotland now,” he said with some hesitation.

“Oh most certainly,” Mrs. Lorraine said.

“I don’t know where the man in whose yacht I was to have gone may be now.  I might spend half my holiday in trying to catch him.”

“And during that time you would be alone,” Mrs. Lorraine said.

“I suppose the Tyrol is a very nice place,” he suggested.

“Oh most delightful,” she exclaimed.  “You know, we should go round by Switzerland, and go up by Luzerne and Zurich to the end of the Lake of Constance.  Bregenz, mamma, isn’t that the place where we hired that good-natured man the year before last?”

“Yes, child.”

“Now, you see, Mr. Ingram, if you had less time than we—­if you could not start with us to-morrow—­you might come straight down by Schaffhausen and the steamer, and catch us up there, and then mamma would become your guide.  I am sure we should have some pleasant days together till you got tired of us, and then you could go off on a walking-tour if you pleased.  And then, you know, there would be no difficulty about our meeting at Bregenz, for mamma and I have plenty of time, and we should wait there for a few days, so as to make sure.”

“Cecilia,” said Mrs. Kavanagh, “you must not persuade Mr. Ingram against his will.  He may have other duties—­other friends to see, perhaps.”

“Who proposed it, mamma?” said the daughter calmly.

“I did, as a mere joke.  But of course, if Mr. Ingram thinks of going to the Tyrol, we should be most pleased to see him there.”

“Oh, I have no other friends whom I am bound to see,” Ingram said with some hesitation, “and I should like to go to the Tyrol.  But—­the fact is—­I am afraid—­”

“May I interrupt you?” said Mrs. Lorraine.  “You do not like to leave London so long as your friend Sheila is in trouble.  Is not that the case?  And yet she has her father to look after her.  And it is clear you cannot do much for her when you do not even know where Mr. Lavender is.  On the whole, I think you should consider yourself a little bit now, and not get cheated out of your holidays for the year.”