“It is my own writing,” she said, “it is one of the envelopes I left with Cis.”  Opening it and glancing at the contents her color rose, and her bosom heaved.  “Oh! do look at this,” she cried.

De Burgh rose and read over her shoulder.

“DEAR AUNTIE,

“I hope you are quite well.  We have had a dreadful row!  Charlie could not say his lesson, so Mr. Sells roared at him like a bull.  Charlie got into one of his fits, you know, and then he burst out laughing.  Mr. Sells went into such a rage; he laid hold of him and whipped him all over, and I ran to break the cane.  I hit his nose with my head so hard that the blood came.  I was glad to see the blood; then they locked us both up.  I have no stamp.  Do come and take us away, do do do!

                          “Your loving,
                                   “CIS.”

“P.S.—­If you don’t come we’ll run away to the gipsies on the common.”

“The scoundrel!  I’ll go and thrash him within an inch of his life!” cried De Burgh, when they had finished this epistle.

“I should like to do it myself,” said Katherine in a low fierce tone, starting up and crushing the letter in an angry grip.

“By Jove!  I wish you could, I fancy you’d punish him pretty severely,” returned De Burgh admiringly.

“I must go—­go at once,” continued Katherine, her lips trembling, her lustrous eyes filling.  “Think of the tender, fragile, sweet boy—­who is an angel in nature—­beaten by a dog like that!  Lord de Burgh, I must leave you, I must go at once.”

“Yes, of course,” said De Burgh, standing between her and the door; “but not alone.  May I come with you?”

Katherine paused, and put her hand to her head.

“No, I think you had better not.”

“I will do whatever you like.  Take Miss Payne with you—­she is a shrewd woman—­and consult with her what you had better do.  Shall you remove the boys?”

She paused again before replying, looking rapidly, despairingly round.  These changes had cost her a good deal, and she had not much to go on with unless she broke into the deposit which she hoped to preserve intact for a long time to come.

“I do not know where to put them,” she said, and there was a sound of tears in her voice.

“You can do whatever you choose,” said De Burgh, emphatically, “only, while you are driving down to this confounded place, make up your mind what to do.  I wish you would feel yourself free to do anything or pay anything.  While you are dressing, I will go round to Miss Payne and bring her back with me; then you must take my carriage, it will save time; and don’t exaggerate the effects of this whipping, a few impatient cuts with a cane over his jacket would not hurt him much.”

“Hurt him, no; crush and terrify him, yes.  It will be months before he can forget it; and I told the head master of Charlie’s peculiarly nervous temperament—­this man seems to be an assistant.  I will take your advice, Lord de Burgh, and make some plan with Miss Payne.  I hope she will be able to come.”