The young lady bowed silently to the colonel, and taking a short farewell of Lady Harrington, but one in which mutual kindness was mutually understood, she took the arm of her discomfited friend, and they proceeded towards a little gate in the iron fencing which divided the garden from the paddock in front of the house. "And you won't shake hands with me, Helen!" said Sir Gilbert, following. "Do not say so, sir," replied Helen, turning back and holding out her hand. "And when shall we see you here again?" "Whenever you will come and fetch me, Sir Gilbert," she replied, endeavouring to look cheerful. He took her hand, wrung it, and turned away without speaking. "Your interdict, sir," said Colonel Harrington, "does not, I hope, extend beyond Mowbray Park paling?--I trust I may be permitted to take care of these young ladies as far as the lodges?" "If you did not do it, you know very well that I should, you puppy!" replied his father: and so saying, he turned into a walk which led in a direction as opposite as possible from that which his ireful lady had chosen. Colonel Harrington felt that it required some exertion of his conversational powers to bring his fair companions back to the tone of cheerful familiarity which had reigned among them all at the breakfast-table; but the exertion was made, and so successfully, that before the walk was ended a feeling of perfect confidence was established between them. When they were about to part, he said, "My mother and I shall labour, and cease not, to work our way through the _écorce_ to the kernel of my good father's heart; and there we shall find exactly the material we want, of which to form a reconciliation between your mother and him.--Farewell, Helen!--farewell, Miss Torrington! I trust that while the interdict lasts, chance will sometimes favour our meeting beyond the forbidden precincts." He stepped forward to open the Park gate for them, shook hands, uttered another "Farewell!" and departed. CHAPTER X. MRS. MOWBRAY CONSULTS MR. CARTWRIGHT UPON THE SUBJECT OF HER LATE HUSBAND'S WILL. The first person they encountered on entering the house was Fanny. "Where _have_ you been!" she exclaimed. "My mother is half frightened to death. Do go to her this moment, Helen, to set her heart at ease." "Where is she, Fanny?" inquired Helen, with a sigh, as she remembered how little the answers she must necessarily give to the questions she would be sure to ask were likely to produce that effect. "In her dressing-room, Helen. But where _have_ you been?" "To Oakley." "Good gracious, Helen!--and without asking mamma's leave?" "I did it with a good intention, Fanny. Do you think I was wrong in endeavouring to restore the intimacy that has been so cruelly interrupted? Do you think mamma will be very angry? I am sure it was chiefly for her sake that I went."