Madeline answered rather stiffly: "It was very interesting. I enjoyed listening." For she would have been better pleased with this young person if she had taken her Aunt's part. Her own mother prosed, copiously, about ancestors; but she herself never tried to silence her. However, her displeasure melted when Mrs. Aiken--having told the cap it needn't wait; she would call--coloured and hesitated, and wanted to say something. "Yes," said Madeline. "I was--was so grieved--to see about your friend.... Oh dear!--perhaps I oughtn't to talk about it...." Miss Upwell felt she had to be dignified. After all she and Jack were _not_ engaged. "You mean Captain Calverley, Mrs. Aiken," said she. "We are hoping now--I mean his family are hoping--to hear from him every day. But, of course, they are--we all are--_very_ anxious." Mrs. Aiken looked dubiously at her visitor's face, seeming not to see the hand that was suggesting a good-bye shake. Then she said, very hesitatingly, "I--I didn't know--is there a hope? I only see the _Telegraph_." Then, an instant after, she saw her mistake. She might at least have had the sense to say nothing about the _Telegraph_. Madeline felt her colour come and go, and her heart getting restless. "A hope? Oh _dear_, yes!" How bravely she said it! "You know there is no proof whatever of his..." But she could not say "death." "Oh no--no proof, of course! ... I should be so glad ... I suppose they only meant..." All Madeline's courage was in the voice that succeeded in saying, "Dear Mrs. Aiken, do tell me what was said. I dare say it was all nonsense. The newspapers get all sorts of stories." Mrs. Aiken would have given something to be allowed to say no more about it. She stumbled a good deal over an attempt to unsay her blunder. She really couldn't be positive. Quite as likely as not the paragraph might have referred to someone else. She was far from sure, after all, that the name wasn't Silverton. Yes, it certainly was, Major Silverton--that was it! "You are only saying that," said Madeline, gently but firmly, "to make my mind easy. It is kind--but--but you had better tell me now. Haven't you got the _Telegraph_? I can buy one, of course, on my way home. But I would much rather know now." Mrs. Aiken saw no way of keeping it back. "It's in here--the _Telegraph_" said she. That is, it was in the parlour opposite to the one they had left. There it was, sure enough, and there, in clear print, was the statement of its correspondent at Something-fontein or other, that all hopes were now given up of the reappearance of Captain Calverley, who had been missing since the action at Burghersdrift, as some of his accoutrements had been found in the river below Kroondorp, and it was now looked upon as certain that he was drowned shortly after the action.