Helen did, clearly enough.

“Besides,” continued the earl, “I might, perhaps, like to see the world myself—­just once again.  At any rate, I shall like to see it through this young man’s eyes.  He has not told you of our plan yet?”

“Not a word.”

“That is well.  I like to see he can keep faith.  I made him promise not, because I wanted to tell you myself, Helen—­I wanted to see how you would take the plan.  Will you let us go?  That is, the boy must go, and—­you will do without me for a year?”

“A whole year!  Can not Cardross come home once—­just once?”

“Yes, I will manage it so; he shall come, even if I can not,” replied the earl, and then was silent.

“And you,” said Mrs. Bruce, suddenly, after a long meditation upon her son and his future, “you leave, for a year, your home, your pleasant life here; you change all your pursuits and plans, and give yourself no end of trouble, just to go and watch over my boy, and keep his mother’s heart from aching!  How can I ever thank you—­ever reward you?”

No, she never could.

“It is an ugly word, ‘reward;’ I don’t like it.  And, Helen, I thought thanks were long since set aside as unnecessary between you and me.”

“And you will be absent a whole year?”

“Probably, or a little more; for the boy ought to keep two sessions at least; and locomotion is not so easy to me as it is to Cardross.  Yes, my dear, you will have to part with me—­I mean I shall have to part with you—­for a year.  It is a long time in our short lives.  I would not do it—­give myself the pain of it—­for any thing in this world except to make Helen happy.”

“Thank you; I know that.”

But Helen, full of her son and his prospects—­her youth renewed in his youth, her life absorbed in his, seeming to stretch out to a future where there was no ending, knew not half of what she thanked him for.

She yielded to all the earl’s plans; and after so many years of resistance, bowed her independent spirit to accept his bounty with humility of gratitude that was almost painful to both, until a few words of his led her to, and left her in the belief that he was doing what was agreeable to himself—­that he really did enjoy the idea of a long sojourn at St. Andrew’s; and, mother-like, when she was satisfied on this head, she began almost to envy him the blessing of her boy’s constant society.

So she agreed to all his plans cheerfully, contentedly, as indeed she had good reason to be contented; thankfully accepted every thing, and never for a moment suspected that she was accepting a sacrifice.

Chapter 17

During a whole year the Earl of Cairnforth and Mr. Bruce-Montgomery—­ for, as soon as possible, Cardross legally assumed the name—­resided at that fairest of ancient cities and pleasantest of Scotch Universities, St. Andrew’s.