“Hush! That is absurd. If you come with us, there will be no question that it will be best for you as well as for Caryl. And it will show that her people understand. Now will you come?” Still feeling as if she were held guilty by the boy’s father, Rhoda glanced towards him. “If Sir Robert agrees, I’ll go,” said she. The marchioness went over to him and they exchanged a few words. Then Lady Eridge came back. “He agrees with me that nothing could be better. And he thinks that you had better both come at once. Of course you had better be near at hand, for there will be questions to answer, since the terrible affair happened in your room. And you will be near enough at the Priory.” It was settled at once. Within an hour little Caryl had been removed to his couch on wheels, and wrapped up carefully, was on his way to the Priory, in the company of Rhoda, his grandmother, and one of his aunts. Rhoda took care not to meet Sir Robert before leaving the house. She could not face those cold looks of his again. And it was with a very heavy heart, and a sense that, in spite of her utmost efforts, she had lost a dear friend, that she left the Mill-house for a second time. CHAPTER XX AND LAST. SIR ROBERT’S SECRET Safely housed at the Priory, Rhoda escaped much of the terrible anxiety and distress which reigned at the Mill-house during the next few days. There was an inquest, but Rhoda happily escaped once more the trial of being called as a witness. Her health had broken down under the strain of the past few weeks, and although she was allowed to see Caryl for a little while every day, she was kept very quiet and received no visits, even from her own people. The ladies at the Priory were, however, very kind to her, and did their best to make her forget what she had gone through. Nobody knew better than they what she must have suffered at the hands of the exacting and capricious Lady Sarah, who, with all her charm, had been a difficult person to live with. At the inquest Jack Rotherfield was called as a witness, and he was either lucky enough or clever enough to disarm every one by the depth of his distress at what he had done. He declared that, having had a little quarrel with Sir Robert recently, he had been shy of coming to the house, but that, having met Miss Pembury one day out of doors, he had been anxious for her to come out and speak to him again, as he wished her to make his peace with Sir Robert. Not being able to attract her attention in any other way, he had on seeing Miss Pembury, as he supposed, at her window, fired a revolver which he always carried about with him; and to his horror, a scream had told him that the bullet had struck the lady whom he had until that moment believed to be Miss Pembury, but who he then discovered by the voice to be Lady Sarah.