The meal did not recover its pleasant tone after this little incident, and soon after they all scattered through the house and the grounds, Mrs. Morris setting out for her usual woodland walk, which she took each morning. A half-glance the boy had given her as he quitted the room at breakfast-time, induced her to believe that he wanted to consult her about his letter, and so, as she entered the shrubbery, she was not surprised to find Lord Agincourt there before her. “I was just wishing it might be your footstep I heard on the gravel,” said he, joining her. “May I keep you company?” “To be sure, provided you don't make love to me, which I never permit in the forenoon.” “Oh, I have other thoughts in my head,” said he, sighing drearily; “and you are the very one to advise me what to do. Not, indeed, that I have any choice about that, only how to do it, that's the question.” “When one has the road marked out, it's never very hard to decide on the mode of the journey,” said she. “Tell me what your troubles are.” “Troubles you may well call them,” said he, with a deeper sigh. “There, read that--if you can read it--for the old Earl does not grow more legible by being older.” “'Crews Court,'” read she, aloud. “Handsome old abbey it must be,” added she, remarking on a little tinted sketch at the top of the letter. “Yes, that's a place of mine. I was born there,” said the boy, half proudly. “It's quite princely.” “It's a fine old thing, and I 'd give it all this minute not to have had that disagreeable letter.” “'My dear Henry,'” began she, in a low, muttering voice, “'I have heard with--with'--not abomination--oh no, 'astonishment--with astonishment, not unmixed with'--it can't be straw--is it straw?--no, it is 'shame,-- not unmixed with shame, that you have so far forgiven--forgotten'--oh, that's it--'what was done to yourself.'” “No, 'what was due to yourself,'” interrupted he; “that's a favorite word of his, and so I know it.” “'To become the--the'--dear me, what can this be with the vigorous G at the beginning?--'to become'--is it really the Giant?--'to become the Giant'--” The boy here burst into a fit of laughing, and, taking the letter from her, proceeded to read it out.