Alison did not reply, but a sigh escaped her. She had indeed on that afternoon wandered pretty far on the road that led to the distant camp at Aldershot, in the slight hope of meeting him of whom her thoughts were full, and to whom--in ignorance of where he was--she feared to write announcing that she was again at Chilcote. Winter had come and gone while she was at Antwerp; the snowdrops had faded from white to yellow and passed away. The loose petals of the late crocuses, golden and purple, had also disappeared under the increasing heat of the sunshine; the garden was fragrant with wall-flower and scented jonquils, and as the days began to lengthen the pale primroses came to spot the turf under the old beech-trees, and within the green whorls of leaves. Ere long the hedge-banks were gay with them among the litter of dead foliage, and Alison thought of the days when she was wont to linger and make posies of them as she went to school. The sum that was to have been settled on Alison in case Bevil fell in the intended duel with Lord Cadbury had not taken any tangible form, as the duel never came off, in the first place, and, in the second, Messrs. Taype, Shawrpe, & Scrawly at that precise time had been unable to discover the actual whereabouts of the young lady; so she was in ignorance of his kind consideration and lover-like generosity, while they waited for fresh instructions. But, aware that to one so impecunious as Sir Ranald Cheyne money could never come amiss, Bevil Goring contrived, through the Scottish legal agents of the former, to transmit to his bankers for the use of Alison a sum anonymously, or in such a fashion that they could never discover, save from himself, from whom or whence it came. And the news thereof arrived one morning when the holders of some overdue accounts had been more than usually clamorous for settlement, and Alison had begun to feel once again some of the old emotions of shame and desperation in her heart as in the past, and her eyes were full of unshed tears. 'What a world it is!' groaned Sir Ranald. 'True, papa; yet it is but little we require or wish for.' 'We can neither have what we require or may wish for, unless--unless----' 'What, papa?' 'We have money,' said he, gloomily. 'True. Oh, that weary money!' sighed the girl. 'However, we have still five pounds in the bank, and in my purse are a sovereign and some silver.' 'My poor, obstinate pet! How easily all this might be amended! A dun, of course,' he added, as the postman's rat-tat was heard at the door, and Archie brought in a letter. 'Ah! I thought so,' muttered the poor baronet, as he saw that the envelope was a blue one. 'Throw it in the fire; they are all alike.'