"I'll have a talk with your mother, and I'll not let out a thing to her," said Mrs. Fanning, "and I'll take you up and put you right into bed myself. I declare you do want a little bit of mothering from a woman who has got abundant strength. Your own poor, dear mother would do it if she could, but she hasn't got the strength of a fly. I am very strong, dear, owing to Dr. Williams' Pink Pills, bless the man!" Just at that moment Mr. Fanning came up. He bent his tall, awkward figure towards his mother, and I distinctly heard the odious word "Robert," and then Mrs. Fanning took my hand and led me out of the drawing-room. She was very kind, and she helped me to get into bed, and when I was in bed she took my hand and said she was not going to stir until I fell asleep. "For I have been through these times, my dear, but the first time is the worst of all," said the good woman, and she held my hand tightly, and in spite of myself her presence comforted me and I did drop asleep. The next morning when I went down to breakfast I could not see any sign of Robert. Immediately afterwards I went into Jane's room. "Where is the man in possession?" I said bitterly. Jane's face looked a little relieved. "Haven't you heard?" she said; "he has gone. It was Mr. Fanning who did it. He paid the bill in full, and the man has gone. He went last night. Mr. Fanning is arranging the whole thing, and the man in possession won't come back, that is, for the present. I begin to see daylight. I am glad you have made up your mind to be sensible, Westenra." CHAPTER XXIII ALBERT I was so stunned I could not speak at all for a minute, then I said, after a brief pause-- "Do you know if Mr. Fanning is in?" "No, why should he be in?" replied Miss Mullins in an almost irritable voice, "he has got his work to do if you have not. Men who are generous on the large scale on which he is generous, cannot afford to be idle--that is, if they are going on adding to their fortunes. He is out and probably in the city, he is a great publisher, you know, and extremely successful. For my part, I respect him; he may be a rough diamond, but he is a diamond all the same." Still I did not speak, and I am sure my silence, and the stunned subdued heavy expression on my face, vexed Jane more than any amount of words I might have uttered. "I will go and see if he has really gone," I said. "It is sometimes quite late before he starts for the city, I want to speak to him at once." "Now, Westenra, if you in this crisis make mischief," began Miss Mullins. "Oh, I won't make mischief," I said, "but I must speak to Mr. Fanning." I had almost reached the door when she called me back. "One moment," she said. I turned, impatiently. "Please don't keep me, Jane, I must see Mr. Fanning before he goes to the city--I will come back afterwards."