De Burgh did not prolong his absence; he returned to Castleford while Katherine was still in attendance on the little invalid; but he found his stay neither pleasant nor profitable.  Katherine was far too much occupied nursing her nephew to give any time or attention to her impatient admirer.

“Miss Liddell is a peculiar specimen of her sex,” he growled, in his usual candid and unaffected manner, as he and Colonel Ormonde sat alone over their wine.  “She never leaves those brats.  She must know that it’s not every girl I should take the trouble of teaching, and yet she throws over each appointment I make.  Does she intend to adopt your wife’s boys?  Adopted sons are an appendage no man would like to accept with a bride, be she ever so well endowed.”

“Oh, she will forget them as soon as she falls in love!  You must carry on the siege more vigorously.”

“How the deuce are you to do it when you never get within hail of the fortress?  There is something peculiar about Katherine Liddell I can’t quite make out.  If she were a commonplace woman, angular, squinting, or generally plain, I could go in and win and collar the cash without hesitation, but somehow or other I can’t go into the affair in this spirit.  I want the woman as well as the money.”

“Well, I see no reason why you shouldn’t have both.  Your faintness of heart never lost you any fair lady, I am sure, Jack.”

“Perhaps not.”  And he smoked meditatively for a minute or two.

“Then you will not leave us to-morrow?” said Ormonde.

“When does she go up to town?” asked De Burgh.

“On Monday, I believe.”

“Then I’ll run up the day after to-morrow.  Old De Burgh has just come back from the Riviera.  I’ll go and do the dutiful, and tell him I have found a suitable partner for my joys and sorrows; it will score to my credit.  He doesn’t half like me, you know.  Then I’ll have a dozen better chances to cultivate Miss Liddell in town, and away from your nursery, than I have here.  Give me her address.  She is a frank, unconventional creature, and won’t mind coming out with me alone.”

“Very true.  Mrs. Ormonde has persuaded me to take her to town for a couple of months; so we’ll be there to back you up.”

“Good!  Meanwhile I will do my best for my own hand.  If she starts on Monday, I’ll pay my respects to the peerless one by the time she has swallowed her luncheon on Tuesday,” said De Burgh, with a harsh laugh.

Thus it came to pass that De Burgh’s card was amongst those preserved for Katherine’s inspection; but she postponed her departure first to Wednesday, next to Saturday, and De Burgh grew savagely impatient when Colonel Ormonde informed him of these changes in a private note.

When at last she did arrive, Miss Payne was struck by the look of renewed hope and cheerfulness in her young friend’s face.  Her movements even were more alert, and her voice had lost its languid tone.