'May I ask who inquires?' said the vicar. 'I sent in my card--Captain Goring, of the Rifle Brigade.' 'Just returned from Ashantee?' 'Nay,' replied Bevil, colouring with honest mortification, 'I was detailed for home service.' 'And now stationed at Aldershot?' 'Yes.' 'Ah! a bad place Aldershot--a very centre of dissipation, I fear. May I ask if you are a relation?' 'I am not.' 'A friend?' queried the vicar. 'Of course--one most deeply interested in Miss Cheyne.' 'I thought so,' rejoined the vicar, eyeing him keenly and with a curiously provoking smile while playing with his gold eyeglass; 'may I ask how and why?' 'Certainly--I am engaged to her.' 'Her _fiancé_? asked the vicar; 'is that what you mean?' 'Yes; and now _where_ is she?' 'I regret--regret to say--that--that I have not yet her present address. She only left this for London yesterday.' 'In other words, by your tone,' said Goring, haughtily, as he rose and took his hat, 'you know it, but decline to give it to me?' 'I do not say so,' replied the vicar, also rising, as if the interview was ended; 'but for the present you will excuse me saying more.' 'Sir!' exclaimed Bevil, with some heat. 'Goring--Goring,' muttered the vicar, eyeing Bevil's card; 'it is strange that the young lady never spoke to me of you, though in her grief she several times mentioned another friend.' 'Ah!--who?' 'Lord Cadbury.' 'Cadbury!' exclaimed Goring, with a contemptuous inflection of voice that did not escape the listener. 'Yes; who, by a very ample remittance--a thousand pounds, I believe--did much to ease and soothe her poor father's last days on earth.' 'Indeed!' Whew! here was intelligence. His birthday gift had been attributed to, and evidently adopted by, that reptile Cadbury! And, finding that there was nothing to be made of the suspicious and over-wary vicar, he withdrew. Scarcely had Goring, disappointed and dispirited, taken his departure, when Lord Cadbury, accompanied by Gaskins, having found Chilcote deserted, arrived at the vicarage to make the same inquiries, but with very different intentions. Impressed by the years and rank of his second visitor, the vicar admitted that he was cognisant of Miss Cheyne's movements, and, on consideration, promised to send her correct address to Cadbury Court when she wrote to him from London; for, knowing the helplessness of the young girl, even with Cadbury was the vicar wary. Dalton remained at Chilcote Grange to be nursed by Laura; Jerry departed on sick leave to Wilmothurst, while Bevil Goring remained with the battalion at Aldershot to undergo the drudgery of the spring drills in the Long Valley, and await in a kind of silent desperation with hope to hear something of Alison. How terrible to endure was this period of an inaction that was enforced by circumstances over which he had no control, and many a hearty malediction he bestowed upon the close old vicar of Chilcote.