Of course the blow to Geraldine was a terrible one.

“We have lost him,” she said.

“That does not follow,” said Clement.  “It is quite plain that he does not mean to cut himself off from us, and America is not out of reach.”

“It is just the restless impatience that you warned him against.  As if he could not have taken her to the Hendersons.”

“She would not have been safe there, unless acts of cruelty could have been proved.”

“Or to us, out here.”

“My dear Cherry, imagine his sudden arrival with such an appendage!  I really think the boy has acted for the best.”

“Giving up Oxford too!”

“That can be resumed.”

“And most likely that wretched little girl will run off in a month’s time.  It is in the blood.”

“Come, come, Cherry.  I can’t have you in this uncharitable mood.”

“Then I mustn’t say what I think of that Dolores abetting him.”

“No, I like her letter.”

It fell hard upon Geraldine to keep all to herself, while entertained in full state by her hosts.  Perhaps Adeline would have liked something on a smaller scale, for she knew what was ostentatious; but though Mr. White had once lived in a corner of the castle, almost like an artisan; since he had married, it had become his pride to treat his guests on the grandest London scale, and the presence of Sir Robert Audley for one night evoked all his splendours.  He made excuses for having no one to meet the party but the chaplain and his wife and the young doctor, who he patronizingly assured them was “quite the gentleman,” and Theodore White-— “Just to fill up a corner and amuse the young ladies.”  Theodore had been lately sent out, now a clerk, soon to be a partner; but he was very shy, and did not amuse the young ladies at all!  Indeed, he was soon so smitten with admiration for Franceska, that he could do nothing but sit rapt, looking at her under his eyelids.

The chaplain had received an offer of preferment in England, and was anxious to go home as soon as possible.  Clement was now so well, that after assisting the next day in the week’s duties among the people, and at the pretty little church that Mr. White had built, he ventured to accept the proposal of becoming a substitute until the decision was made or another chaplain found.  He was very happy to be employed once more in his vocation.

The climate suited him exactly, and the loan of the chaplain’s house would relieve him and Geraldine from the rather oppressive hospitality of the castle.  The search for Benista’s antecedents would of course go on with the assistance of Mr. White and his Italian foreman, but both assured him that the inquiry might be protracted, as winter was likely to cut off the communications with many parts of the interior, and many of the men would be at their distant homes till the spring advanced.