On the following morning, Sunday, a letter was delivered at Caramel Cottage for Mr. Reste, the postmark being London, the writing in the same hand as the last--Captain Amphlett's. Mr. Barbary took it away to his gun-room; Katrine saw it, later in the day, lying on the deal-table there, unopened. The next Thursday afternoon, Lena being then almost well--for children are dying to-day and running about again to-morrow--I called at the Cottage to ask after Katrine. We heard she had an attack of fever. The weather was lovely again; the October sky blue as in summer, the sun hot and bright. Well, she did look ill! She sat in the parlour at the open window, a huge shawl on, and her poor face about half the size it was before. What had it been, I asked, and she said ague; but she was much better now and intended to be at the Manor again on Monday. "Sit down please, Johnny. I suppose Lena has been glad of the holiday?" "She just has. That young lady believes French was invented for her especial torment. Have you heard from Mr. Reste, Katrine?----What does he say about his impromptu flitting?" She turned white as a ghost, never answering, looking at me strangely. I thought a spasm might have seized her. "Not yet," she faintly said. "Papa thinks--thinks he may have gone abroad." While I was digesting the words, some vehicle was heard rattling up the side lane; it turned the corner and stopped at the gate. "Why, Katrine," I said, "it is a railway fly from Evesham!" A little fair man in a grey travelling-suit got out of the fly, came up the path, and knocked at the door. Old Joan answered it and showed him into the room. "Captain Amphlett," she said. Katrine looked ready to die. "I must apologize for intruding," he began, with a pleasant voice and manner. "My friend Edgar Reste is staying here, I believe." Katrine was taken with a shivering fit. The stranger looked at her with curiosity. I said she had been ill with ague, and was about to add that Edgar Reste had left, when Mr. Barbary came in. Captain Amphlett turned to him and went on to explain: he was on his way to spend a little time in one of the Midland shires, and had halted at Evesham for the purpose of looking up Edgar Reste--from whom he had been expecting to hear more than a week past; could not understand why he did not. Mr. Barbary, with all the courtesy of the finished gentleman, told him, in reply to this, that Edgar Reste had left Caramel Cottage a week ago. "Dear me!" cried the stranger, evidently surprised. "And without writing to tell me. Was his departure unexpected?" Mr. Barbary laughed lightly. That man would have retained his calmest presence of mind when going down in a wreck at sea. "Some matter of business called him away, I fancy," he replied. "And to what part of England was he going?" asked Captain Amphlett, after a pause. "Did he say?"