“We will work,” was the substance of those last words between them, and their parting tokens were characteristic, each giving the other a little case of mathematical instruments, “We will work, and we will hope.”

“And what for?” said Dolores.

“I should say for toil, if it could be with untarnished name,” said Gerald.

“Name and fame are our own to make,” said Dolores, with sparkling eyes.

This was their parting.  Indeed they expected to meet at Christmas or before it, so soon as Mr. Maurice Mohun should have written.  Gerald was, by the unanimous wish of his uncles, to finish his terms at Oxford.  Whatever might be his fate, a degree would help him in life.

He had accepted the decision, though he had rather have employed the time in a restless search for his mother and sister; but after vainly pursuing two or three entertainments at fairs, he became amenable to the conviction that they were more likely to hear something if they gave up the search and kept quiet, and both Dolores and Mrs. Henderson promised to be on the watch.

The state of suspense proved an admirable tonic to the whole being of the young man.  His listlessness had departed, and he did everything with an energy he had never shown before.  Only nothing would induce him to go near Vale Leston, and he made it understood that his twenty-first birthday was to be unnoticed.  Not a word passed between Gerald and his aunt as to the cause of the journey, and the doubt that hung over him, but nothing could be more assiduous and tender than his whole conduct to her and his uncle throughout the journey, as though he had no object in life but to save them trouble and make them comfortable.

The party started in August, travelled very slowly, and he was the kindest squire to the two girls, taking them to see everything, and being altogether, as Geraldine said, the most admirable courier in the world, with a wonderful intuition as to what she individually would like to see, and how she could see it without fatigue.  Moreover, on the Sunday that occurred at a little German town, it was the greatest joy to her that he sought no outside gaiety, but rather seemed to cling to his uncle’s home ministrations, and even to her readings of hymns.  They had a quiet walk together, and it was a day of peace when his gentle kindness put her in mind of his father, yet with a regretful depth she had always missed in Edgar.

Nor was there any of that old dreary, half-contemptuous tone and manner which had often made her think he was only conforming to please her, and shrinking from coming to close quarters, where he might confess opinions that would grieve her.  He was manifestly in earnest, listening and joining in the services as if they had a new force to him.  Perhaps they had the more from the very absence of the ordinary externals, and with nothing to disturb the individual personality of Clement’s low, earnest, and reverent tones.  There were tears on his eyelashes as he rose up, bent over, and kissed his Cherie.  And that evening, while Clement and the two nieces walked farther, and listened to the Benediction in the little Austrian church, Gerald sat under a linden-tree with his aunt, and in the fullness of his heart told her how things stood between him and Dolores.