He wished us good-night on an appointment of the hour for breakfast, and ordered beds for us in the hotel.

Miss Goodwin commenced:  ’But really I have nothing to tell you, or very little.  You know, Papa has introductions everywhere; we are like Continental people, and speak a variety of languages, and I am almost a foreigner, we are so much abroad; but I do think English boys should be educated at home:  I hope you’ll go to an English college.’

Noticing my painful look, ’We saw him at the Court of the Prince of Eppenwelzen,’ she said, as if her brows ached.  ’He is very kindly treated there; he was there some weeks ago.  The place lies out in the Hanover direction, far from here.  He told us that you were with your grandfather, and I must see Riversley Grange, and the truth is you must take me there.  I suspect you have your peace to make; perhaps I shall help you, and be a true Peribanou.  We go over Amsterdam, the Hague, Brussels, and you shall see the battlefield, Paris, straight to London.  Yes, you are fickle; you have not once called me Peribanou.’

Her voluble rattling succeeded in fencing off my questions before I could exactly shape them, as I staggered from blind to blind idea, now thinking of the sombre red Bench, and now of the German prince’s Court.

‘Won’t you tell me any more to-night?’ I said, when she paused.

‘Indeed, I have not any more to tell,’ she assured me.

It was clear to me that she had joined the mysterious league against my father.  I began to have a choking in the throat.  I thanked her and wished her good-night while I was still capable of smiling.

At my next interview with Colonel Goodwin he spoke promptly on the subject of my wanderings.  I was of an age, he said, to know my own interests.  No doubt filial affection was excellent in its way, but in fact it was highly questionable whether my father was still at the Court of this German prince; my father had stated that he meant to visit England to obtain an interview with his son, and I might miss him by a harum-scarum chase over Germany.  And besides, was I not offending my grandfather and my aunt, to whom I owed so much?  He appealed to my warmest feelings on their behalf.  This was just the moment, he said, when there was a turning-point in my fortunes.  He could assure me most earnestly that I should do no good by knocking at this prince’s doors, and have nothing but bitterness if I did in the end discover my father.  ‘Surely you understand the advantages of being bred a gentleman?’ he wound up.  ’Under your grandfather’s care you have a career before you, a fine fortune in prospect, everything a young man can wish for.  And I must tell you candidly, you run great risk of missing all these things by hunting your father to earth.  Give yourself a little time:  reflect on it.’

‘I have,’ I cried.  ‘I have come out to find him, and I must.’