“He is asleep now, but he has been very restless, and there is something about him I don’t like.  Did not Worth say he would come and look at the baby?”

“Yes, but chiefly to pacify Rosamond, about whom he was the most uneasy.”

“She is quite herself now; but you look overdone, Raymond.  Have you had any sleep?”

“I have not lain down.  When we came home at four o’clock, Cecil was quite knocked up, excited and hysterical.  Her maid advised me to leave her to her; so I took a bath, and came down to wait for you.”

Julius would have liked to see the maid who could have soothed his Rosamond last night without him!  He only said, however, “Is Frank come down?  My mother rather expected him.”

“Yes, he came to the race-ground.”

“Indeed!  He was not with you when you came back, or were we not sufficiently rational to see him?”

“Duncombe gave a dinner at the hotel, and carried him off to it.  I’m mortally afraid there’s something amiss in that quarter.  What, didn’t you know that Duncombe’s filly failed?”

“No, indeed, I did not.”

“The town was ringing with it.  Beaten out-and-out by Fair Phyllida! a beast that took them all by surprise—­nothing to look at—­but causing, I fancy, a good deal of distress.  They say the Duncombes will be done for.  I only wish Frank was clear; but that unhappy engagement has thrown him in with Sir Harry’s set, and he was with them all day—­hardly spoke to me.  To a fellow like him, a veteran scamp like old Vivian, with his benignant looks, is ten times more dangerous than men of his own age.  However, having done the damage, they seem to have thrown him off.  Miss Vivian would not speak to him at the ball.”

“Eleonora!  I don’t know how to think it!”

“What you cannot think, a Vivian can do and does!” said Raymond, bitterly.  “My belief is that he was decoyed into being fleeced by the father, and now they have done their worst, he is cast off.  He came home with us, but sat outside, and I could not get a word out of him.”

“I hope my mother may.”

“If he be not too far gone for her.  I always did expect some such termination, but not with this addition.”

“I don’t understand it now—­Lena!”

“I only wonder at your surprise.  The girl has been estranged from us all for a long time.  If it is at an end, so much the better.  I only wish we were none of us ever to see the face of one of them again.”

Julius knew from his wife that there were hopes for Raymond, but of course he might not speak, and he was revolving these words, which had a vehemence unlike the wont of the speaker, when he was startled by Raymond’s saying, “Julius, you were right.  I have come to the conclusion that no consideration shall ever make me sanction races again.”

“I am glad,” began Julius.