"Where is Mr. Arden, your uncle?" "In Scotland." "How soon does he return?" "He will not be in town till spring, I believe; he is going abroad, but he passes through Southampton on his way to the Continent, on Friday next." "And makes some little stay there?" "I think he stays one night." "Then I'll go down and see him, and you shall come with me." Sir Richard stared. "Yes, and you had better not put your foot in it; and clear your head of all notion of running away," he said, fixing his fiery eyes on Sir Richard, with a sudden ferocity that made him fancy that his secret thoughts had revealed themselves under that piercing gaze. "It is not easy to levant now-a-days, unless one has swifter wings than the wires can carry news with; and if you are false, what more do I need than to blast you? and with your name in the _Hue-and-Cry_, and a thousand pounds reward for the apprehension of Sir Richard Arden, Baronet, for forgery, I don't see much more that infamy can do for you." A dark flush crossed Arden's face as he rose. "Not a word now," cried Longcluse harshly, extending his hand quickly towards him; "I may do that which can't be undone." CHAPTER LXXV. BLIGHT AND CHANGE. Danger to herself, Alice suspected none. But she was full of dreadful conjectures about her brother. There was, she was persuaded, no good any longer in remonstrance or entreaty. She could not upbraid him; but she was sure that the terrible fascination of the gaming-table had caused the sudden ruin he vaguely confessed. "Oh," she often repeated, "that Uncle David were in town, or that I knew where to find him!" "But no doubt," she thought, "Richard will hide nothing from him, and perhaps my hinting his disclosures, even to him, would aggravate poor Richard's difficulties and misery." It was not until the next evening that, about the same hour, she again saw her brother. His good resolutions in the interval had waxed faint. They were not reversed, but only in the spirit of indecision, and something of the apathy of despair, postponed to a more convenient season. To her he seemed more tranquil. He said vaguely that the reasons for flight were less urgent and that she had better continue her preparations, as before, for her journey to Yorkshire. Even under these circumstances the journey to Yorkshire was pleasant. There was comfort in the certainty that he would there be beyond the reach of that fatal temptation which had too plainly all but ruined him. From the harrassing distractions, also, which in London had of late beset him, almost without intermission, he might find in the seclusion of Arden a temporary calm. There, with Uncle David's help, there would be time, at least, to ascertain the extent of his losses, and what the old family of Arden might still count upon as their own, and a plan of life might be arranged for the future. Full of these more cheery thoughts, Alice took leave of her brother.