— — —On the return journey to Rugby Laura was very talkative in a fashion that startled and rather shocked Mrs. Sylk. The girl seemed anxious to tell her own affairs to Mr. Delaunay, who, Mrs. Sylk considered, was hardly, although an old friend of the family, a fit recipient for the girl’s confidence. Indeed, the anxious lady pondered, was Lucius Delaunay an old friend of the family? Nay, he was but a college friend of Sir Theodosius, and though she thought it was quite proper that Laura should be friendly and even familiar with him, she did not understand why the girl was leaning forward in this excited way from her corner in the carriage reciting her conversation with Mr. Spryce.
But Laura had been strange during the whole of the London visit; even when Mrs. Sylk had at last succeeded i
