At last the hour of departure came, and Lord Cadbury's carriage and a light luggage-van were at the door; and, ere Alison was assisted into the former, she shook old Archie's hand, and then with a sudden impulse kissed his cheek, for she had known Archie from her infancy. Thus he seemed to her as a part and parcel of Essilmont; and, when the carriage rolled away with her in it, the old man lifted up his hands and voice and wept as only the aged and the hopeless weep. 'Poor girl!' thought Cadbury, with a grimace, when after a time there came a distant view of Aldershot, with its camp of huts, its church spire, and Twesildown Hill, 'she'll hold, I suppose, for a time, to her little rag of fidelity--her promise to that fellow Goring in the infantry lines; but, _faute de mieux_, we shall cure her of that. We shall see what we shall see, when an hour on board the _Firefly_.' Well did Alison know where Aldershot lay, but, conscious that her tormentor's keen eyes were upon her, she turned hers away and gazed steadily in the opposite direction. 'I thought I had bidden good-bye to the world, Cadbury,' said Sir Ranald, with the nearest approach to a smile Alison had seen on his thin, worn face for some time past; 'and here I am about to see it again in your yacht. Alison will require some additions to her wardrobe, I fear, but we have no time for that; and though she has Daisy for her attendant, I should like her also to have the society of some lady friend--do you know of one?' Cadbury looked perplexed. 'What need of a lady friend or chaperon when you, her own father, are with her? Besides, we are close run for time, and Llanyard awaits us at Southampton,' he replied, almost with irritation. 'I have been engaged in many little affairs,' he grumbled in thought, as he recalled the burned bills and the enormous cost, 'but never in a "love chase" so expensive as this! I am in for it now, however, and may as well go through with it; and what will the clubs say when they hear that I am off to see the Continent with old Cheyne's pretty daughter?' The veteran lover chuckled in his vanity at this, and, ideas of marriage apart, he actually began to scheme how he might 'drop' Sir Ranald somewhere on the Continent, compromise the girl in some way, and thus revenge himself on her and Goring too. He had scarcely made up his mind yet in what direction to sail at that inclement season, but, wherever it was, another route would be announced in the papers, to throw adventurous lovers off the scent. CHAPTER XVII. MORE MYSTERY. Bevil Goring was greatly perplexed and bewildered by the sudden disappearance of the household at Chilcote, and in quest of information rode over to Mrs. Trelawney at the Grange, and she expressed herself as much surprised as himself at their abrupt departure, but she knew only a little more on the subject than he did. The baronet and his daughter had left England in Lord Cadbury's yacht the _Firefly_ several days ago.