“So unhappy, so wretched!” Hugh read, and it was this that had amazed him.  Here was a girl engaged to be married to the man she loved, the man she had told him she could not live without, the man of her own choice, of her own heart—­he himself smoothed the way for her, had taken away his own undesirable person, had stepped aside, leaving the field to his rival, and now ...

Hugh blinked at the letter.  “What on earth should she be unhappy about?  She has had a quarrel with Tom perhaps, and she wants me to go and talk to him like a Dutch Uncle.  Poor little maid!  I daresay it is all about twopence!  But it seems very real and tragic to her.”  Hugh sighed.  He ought to stay here.  This was his place, watching and keeping guard and ward for Joan, yet Marjorie wanted him.

“I’ll go.  I can be there and back in a couple of days.  I’ll go.”

He had just time to write and catch the early outward mail from Starden, to-day was Thursday.

    “My dear Marjorie,

“I have had your letter, and it has worried me not a little.  I can’t bear to think of you as unhappy, little girl.  I shall come back to Hurst Dormer, and shall be there to-morrow, Friday, early in the afternoon.  Send me a wire to say if you will come, or if you would rather that I came to Cornbridge.

    “At any rate, be sure that if you are in any trouble or
    difficulty, or are worried and anxious, you have done just the
    right thing in appealing for help to

      “Your old friend,
        “Hugh.”

He rang the bell for Mrs. Bonner.

“Mrs. Bonner, I find I am obliged to go away for a time.”

“You mean—­”

“No,” he said, “I don’t.  I mean that my absence will be temporary.  I can’t say exactly how long I shall be away, but in the meantime I would like to keep my rooms here.”

Mrs. Bonner’s face cleared.  “Oh yes,” she said, “ezackly, I see!”

“I shall run up to Town to-night, and I will write you or wire you when you may expect me back.  It may be a week, it may be less; anyhow, I shall come back.”

“I am very glad to hear that, Mr. Alston,” said Mrs. Bonner heartily.

“I shan’t take many things with me, just enough for the night.  I’ll go and pack my bag, and clear off to catch the six o’clock up train.”

Why not go down to Hurst Dormer to-night, and send off this letter to Marjorie from Town instead of posting it here?  He could see to a few things in Hurst Dormer on the morrow, see Marjorie, arrange her little troubles and then be back here by Saturday; but as he was not sure of his movements he left it that he would wire Mrs. Bonner his probable time of returning.

“One thing, I’ll be able to have a good clear-up when he’s gone,” Mrs. Bonner thought.  Forever her thoughts turned in the direction of soap and water.  The temporary absence of anyone meant to Mrs. Bonner an opportunity for a good clean, and she had already started one that very evening when there came a tapping on her door.