“Was the boat-house of any use now,” he inquired—­“was there a boat in it, for instance?” “There was a capital boat, fit to go anywhere.”  “And a man to manage it?” “To be sure! the gardener was the man; he had been a sailor once; and he knew the lake as well as—­” Kitty stopped, at a loss for a comparison.  “As well as you know your multiplication table?” said Mr. Sarrazin, dropping his serious questions on a sudden.  Kitty shook her head.  “Much better,” she honestly acknowledged.

Opening the breakfast-room door they saw Mrs. Presty making coffee.  Kitty at once retired.  When she had been fishing, her grandmamma inculcated habits of order by directing her to take the rods to pieces, and to put them away in their cases in the lumber-room.  While she was absent, Mr. Sarrazin profited by the opportunity, and asked if Mrs. Linley had thought it over in the night, and had decided on applying for a Divorce.

“I know nothing about my daughter,” Mrs. Presty answered, “except that she had a bad night.  Thinking, no doubt, over your advice,” the old lady added with a mischievous smile.

“Will you kindly inquire if Mrs. Linley has made up her mind yet?” the lawyer ventured to say.

“Isn’t that your business?” Mrs. Presty asked slyly.  “Suppose you write a little note, and I will send it up to her room.”  The worldly-wisdom which prompted this suggestion contemplated a possible necessity for calling a domestic council, assembled to consider the course of action which Mrs. Linley would do well to adopt.  If the influence of her mother was among the forms of persuasion which might be tried, that wary relative maneuvered to make the lawyer speak first, and so to reserve to herself the advantage of having the last word.

Patient Mr. Sarrazin wrote the note.

He modestly asked for instructions; and he was content to receive them in one word—­Yes or No.  In the event of the answer being Yes, he would ask for a few minutes’ conversation with Mrs. Linley, at her earliest convenience.  Tha t was all.

The reply was returned in a form which left Yes to be inferred:  “I will receive you as soon as you have finished your breakfast.”

Chapter XXVII.

Resolution.

Having read Mrs. Linley’s answer, Mr. Sarrazin looked out of the breakfast-room window, and saw that the fog had reached the cottage.  Before Mrs. Presty could make any remark on the change in the weather, he surprised her by an extraordinary question.

“Is there an upper room here, ma’am, which has a view of the road before your front gate?”

“Certainly!”

“And can I go into it without disturbing anybody?”

Mrs. Presty said, “Of course!” with an uplifting of her eye brows which expressed astonishment not unmixed with suspicion.  “Do you want to go up now?” she added, “or will you wait till you have had your breakfast?”