"She did indeed--most nobly, most patiently. Poor girl! at her own home she knew she stood alone in her faith in Archie's innocence; but they were kind and forbearing, and kept silence, and the knowledge of our trust in him has bound her very close to us."

"Was that call, when she did not see him, all she ever heard of him?"

"All! except that he left a fragment of paper with the servant, with the one pencil scrawl, 'A Dieu!'--a capital D to mark the full meaning. She once showed it to me--folded so as to fit into the back of a locket with his photograph."

"Dear Jenny! And had you traced him on board this ship?"

"No, but his name was in the list; and we knew he had strong fancy for South Africa, whither the Hippolyta was bound. In fact he ought to have been a sailor, and only yielded to his mother's wishes."

"We knew a Mr. Archibald Douglas once," said Anne; "he came and outspanned by us when he was going north after elephants. He stayed a fortnight, because his wagon had to be mended."

"O, Julius! if we could but find him for her again!" cried Rosamond.

"I am afraid Archibald Douglas is not much more individual a name than John Smith," said Julius, sadly.

"That tells as much against the Hippolyta man," said Rosamond.

"Poor Archie would not be difficult to identify," said Julius; "for his hair was like mine, though his eyes were blue, and not short- sighted."

"That is all right, then," cried Anne; "for we had a dispute whether he were young or old, and I remember mamma saying he had a look about him as if his hair might have turned white in a single night."

"Julius! Now won't you believe?" cried Rosamond.

"Had he a Scotch accent?" said Julius.

"No; I recollect papa's telling him he never should have guessed him to be a Scot by his tongue; and he said he must confess that he had never seen Scotland."

"Now, Julius!" pleaded Rosamond, with clasped hands, as if Jenny's fate hung on his opinion.

"How long ago was this?" asked he.

"Four years," said Anne, with a little consideration. "He came both in going and returning, and Alick was wild to join him if he ever passed our way again. My father liked him so much that he was almost ready to consent; but he never came again. Ivory hunters go more from Natal now."

"You will trace him! There's a dear Anne!" exclaimed Rosamond.

"I will write to them at home; Alick knows a good many hunters, and could put Miles into the way of making inquiries, if he touches at Natal on his way home."

"Miles will do all he can," said Julius; "he was almost broken- hearted when he found how Archie had gone. I think he was even more his hero than Raymond when we were boys, because he was more enterprising; and my mother always thought Archie's baffled passion for the sea reacted upon Miles."

"He will do it! He will find him, if he is the Miles I take him for! How old was he--Archie, I mean?"

"A year older than Raymond; but he always seemed much younger, he was so full of life and animation--so unguarded, poor fellow! He used to play tricks with imitating hand-writing; and these, of course, were brought up against him."

"Thirty-four! Not a bit too old for the other end of the romance!"

"Take care, Rosie. Don't say a word to Jenny till we know more.

She must not be unsettled only to be disappointed."

"Do you think she would thank you for that, you cold-blooded animal?"

"I don't know; but I think the suspense would be far more trying than the quiet resigned calm that has settled down on her. Besides, you must remember that even if Archie were found, the mystery has never been cleared up."

"You don't think that would make any difference to Jenny?"

"It makes all the difference to her father; and Jenny will never be a disobedient daughter."

"Oh! but it will--it must be cleared! I know it will! It is faithless to think that injustice is not always set right!"

"Not always here," said Julius, sadly. "See, there's the Backsworth race-ground, the great focus of the evil."

"Were racing debts thought to have any part in the disaster?"

"That I can't tell; but it was those races that brought George Proudfoot under the Vivian influence; and in the absence of all of us, poor Archie, when left to himself after his mother's death, had become enough mixed up in their amusements to give a handle to those who thought him unsteady."

"As if any one must be unsteady who goes to the races!" cried Rosamond. "You were so liberal about balls, I did expect one little good word for races; instead of which, you are declaring a poor wretch who goes to them capable of embezzling two thousand pounds, and I dare say Anne agrees with you!"

"Now, did I ever say so, Anne?"

"You looked at the course with pious horror, and said it justified the suspicion!" persisted Rosamond.

"That's better," said Julius; "though I never even said it justified the suspicion, any more than I said that balls might not easily be overdone, especially by _some_ people."

"But you don't defend races?" said Anne.

"No; I think the mischief they do is more extensive, and has less mitigation than is the case with any other public amusement."

"H'm!" said Rosamond. "Many a merry day have I had on the top of the regimental drag; so perhaps there's nothing of which you would not suspect me."

"I'll tell you what I more than suspect you of," said Julius, "of wearing a gay bonnet to be a bait and a sanction to crowds of young girls, to whom the place was one of temptation, though not to you."

"Oh, there would be no end to it if one thought of such things."

"Or the young men who--"

"Well," broke in Rosamond, "it was always said that our young officers got into much less mischief than where there was a straight-laced colonel, who didn't go along with them to give them a tone."

"That I quite believe. I remember, too, the intense and breathless sense of excitement in the hush and suspense of the multitude, and the sweeping by of the animals--"

"Then you've been!" cried his wife.

"As a boy, yes."

"Not since you were old enough to think it over?" said Anne eagerly.

"No. It seemed to me that the amount of genuine interest in the sport and the animals was infinitesimal compared with the fictitious excitement worked up by betting."

"And what's the harm of betting when you've got the money?"

"And when you haven't?"