"You will tell me this trouble--now--before you leave me? You must, dear boy." He took the hand she put out to him, and held it in silence; then, incoherently, in a voice humbled and low,--almost lost in the rumbling of the carriage,--he told her. It was a revelation of the soul, and as the mother listened she too suffered and wept, but did not relent. Cassandra's cry, "I am a strangah!" sounded in her ears, but her sorrow was for her son. Yes, she was a stranger, and had wisely taken herself back to her own place; what else could she do? Was it not in the nature of a Providence that David had been delayed until after her departure? The duty now devolved upon herself to comfort him without further reproof, but nevertheless to make him see and do his duty in the position he had been called to fill. "Of course she has charm, David, and evidently good sense as well." "How do you mean?" "To perceive the inevitable and return without fuss or complaint to her own station in life." For an instant he sat stunned, and ere he could give utterance to his rage, she resumed, "Naturally, marriage now, in your own class can't be; you'll simply have to live as a bachelor." David groaned. "Why, my son, many do, of their own choice, and you have managed to be happy during this year." He glanced at his watch. "Eleven o'clock,--can't--" "There's no use urging the horses so; we can't make it." "We may, mother, we may." He half rose as if he would leap from the vehicle. "I could go faster on foot. There's a quarter of an hour yet before the Liverpool express. John, can't we get on faster than this?" "No, my lord. One of the 'orses has picked up a stone. If you'll 'old 'em I'll dig it out in 'alf a minute, my lord." David sprang out and took the reins. "Where's the footman?" he asked testily. "You left 'im behind, my lord. He was 'elping Lady Laura cut roses." "David, this is useless. The last train from London went through an hour ago and we haven't ten minutes for the next. Order him to return and we'll consider calmly." David laughed bitterly, and only sprang into the coach and shut the door with a crash. "Drive on, John," he shouted through the window, and again they were off at a mad gallop. His mother turned and looked at him astounded. "Let me read what she has written you, my son," she implored, half frightened at his frenzy. "It's of no use for you to read it. We can't talk now, not rationally." "Then tell him not to drive so furiously, so we can hear each other."