The compliment pleased her.
"Certainly, I can, if your absence is really needful, Ross," said my lady.
"It is needful, I assure you. I can tell you all I have done when I return; just now I must hurry off, or I shall not catch the train."
As the earl quitted Cawdor, he regretted deeply that his son should have complicated the situation by enforcing silence as regarded his mother.
He pondered a great deal on what he should say when he returned—above all, if the boy's trouble was, as he imagined, the loss of money.
"I must not let his mother know," thought the earl. "Boys are boys; she would think he was lost altogether if she knew that he had betting and gambling debts. Whatever he owes, no matter what it is, I will give him a check for it, and make him promise me that it shall be the last time."
He never thought of any other danger; that his son had fallen in love or wanted to marry never occurred to him. He was glad when he reached Dunmore House; the old housekeeper met him in the hall.
"I have dinner ready, my lord," she said. "Lord Chandos told me you were coming."
He looked round expectantly.
"Is not Lord Chandos here?" he asked.