"What do you mean?" cried Harry, his curiosity whetted by the other's tone.
"Ask your father," was the reply. "I may be mistaken, and he mayn't have made such a pile as I imagine; but he'll tell you as soon as he has you to himself; and meanwhile I'll warn Fanny that you're going to look her up."
A hansom tinkled and twinkled across the jaws of Earl's Court Road; and as the light-hearted rapscallion darted off in pursuit, few would have believed with what a deed he had been connected; fewer still with what emotion he had lamented his wickedness not five minutes ago.
The father had not stirred, but he looked up as Harry burst in, breathless and ashamed.
"What, have you been out?"
"Yes, father," with deep humility.
"And where is Lowndes?"
"I have been seeing him off."
"I never heard him go," said Mr. Ringrose, with a deep sigh. "The old things about me—they carried me back into the past. One question, Harry, and then you shall hear all you care to know. We found out from the commissionaire that your mother is at Eastbourne. What is she doing there?"