As he left his home in that quiet starlit night, Ronald little thought that, while his mother lay weeping as though her heart would break, a beautiful face, wet with bitter tears, watched him from one of the upper windows, and his father, shut up alone, listened to every sound, and heard the door closed behind his son as he would have heard his own death knell. The next day Lady Charteris and her daughter left Earlescourt. Lord Earle gave no sign of the heavy blow which had struck him. He was their attentive host while they remained; he escorted them to their carriage, and parted from them with smiling words. Then he went back to the house, where he was never more to hear the sound of the voice he loved best on earth. As the days and months passed, and the young heir did not return, wonder and surprise reigned at Earlescourt. Lord Earle never mentioned his son's name. People said he had gone abroad, and was living somewhere in Italy. To Lord Earl it seemed that his life was ended; he had no further plans, ambition died away; the grand purpose of his life would never be fulfilled. Lady Earle said nothing of the trouble that had fallen upon her. She hoped against hope that the time would come when her husband would pardon their only son. Valentine Charteris bore her disappointment well. She never forgot the simple, chivalrous man who had clung to her friendship and relied so vainly upon her influence. Many lovers sighed round Valentine. One after another she dismissed them. She was waiting until she saw some one like Ronald Earle--like him in all things save the weakness which had so fatally shadowed his life. Chapter IX In a small, pretty villa, on the banks of the Arno, Ronald Earle established himself with his young wife. He had gone direct to Eastham, after leaving Earlescourt, his heart aching with sorrow for home and all that he had left there, and beating high with joy at the thought that now nothing stood between him and Dora. He told her of the quarrel--of his father's stern words--and Dora, as he had foreseen clung round his neck and wept. She would love him all the more, she said. She must love him enough to make up for home and every one else. Yet, strange to say, when Ronald told his pretty, weeping wife all that happened, he made no mention of Valentine Charteris--he did not even utter her name. Ronald's arrangements were soon made. He sent for Stephen Thorne and his wife, and told them how and when he had married Dora. "I am sorry for it," said Stephen. "No good will ever come of such an unequal match. My girl had better have stayed at home, or married the young farmer who loved her. The distance between you is too great, Mr. Earle, and I fear me you will find it out." Ronald laughed at the idea that he should ever tire of Dora. How little these prosaic, commonplace people knew of love!