"She should not return till to-morrow, when perhaps the rain may cease, and the storm abate; but I have ordered my carriage, and she shall have the use of it with pleasure. It must be here in a few minutes now." Constance could only murmur her heartfelt thanks; but now, more than ever, she felt the peculiarity of her position--its extreme awkwardness, and its doubtful aspect. It was but a few weeks since her husband, now known as Lord Lamorna, had stood by the General's side at the late lord's grave, amid a crowd of bareheaded tenantry, and here they were talking of him as "Captain Devereaux!" Sybil's cousin-german had saved and protected her, thus cementing the acquaintance begun by chance at the little lake upon the moor, and was with her now too, probably; he was her husband's nephew, and while that husband was absent, with her own rank, name, and his concealed, she dared not avow the relationship that existed among them all! Poor Constance felt her cheek grow paler, with the sickly thoughts that oppressed her heart, as she muttered under her breath-- "Patience yet a while, and, with God's help, dear Richard shall see me through all this!" In a few words the General, with military brevity, related the whole affair of the evening; the providential discovery of her daughter in the chasm, by her voice, as it was rightly conjectured, having reached the ears of Audley's Thibet mastiff; but for which circumstance she must have perished of cold and exhaustion, or perhaps fallen down the shaft of the old mine and never been heard of again, her fate remaining a mystery to all--contingencies, the contemplation of which appalled the heart of the poor mother, who said in a very faint voice-- "My daughter is long in returning to me. Oh, sir, can it be that you are kindly concealing something from me?" "Nay, madam, the tempestuous state of the weather and the feeble condition of the young lady herself require----" "Ah, that is it! my daughter is ill--dying perhaps, while I am idly talking here. Winny--Winny Braddon, my bonnet and cloak; I shall set forth this instant for Treherne's cottage!" "I assure you, madame, that my carriage was at her disposal, and it shall bring your daughter home." "Oh, General, the gratitude of my heart----" "There--there, please don't thank me for a little common humanity," continued the kind old soldier, "but give my compliments--General Trecarrel's compliments--to Captain Devereaux when he returns, and say that I think he ought, in etiquette, to have waited upon me as his senior officer; for such was the fashion in my young days, when two brethren of the sword took up their quarters in a district so secluded as this; and I should like my girls to know your daughter." "I have a son, too, General--my dear Denzil--who left us but lately to join his Regiment." "Ah--indeed--you quite interest me. Where is it stationed?" "In India--far, far from me."