"You ought not to be dense. Don't you remember me boxing your ears?"

Conniston burst out laughing. "Oh! by Jove! It's Cousin Berengaria."

"Aunt Berengaria," reproved Miss Plantagenet, giving him her hand. "I don't like league-long names. Come and sit down and tell me all about yourself."

"Miss Plantagenet," said Durham, hastily. "Lord Conniston and I have met to talk of Bernard."

"Then I'll form a third," said the old lady, sitting. "Dick—I shall call you Dick," she interpolated—"you are Bernard's friend, as his letter to Alice was all about you. Are you going to desert him?"

"No," said Conniston, taking her entirely into his confidence. "I have chucked the service to see him through his trouble."

"Chucked what service?"

"The army. I was going to the front. But I'll stop till I prove the innocence of Bernard, Aunt Berengaria."

"You don't know that he is alive, Conniston," said the lawyer.

"Ah, but I do," replied Dick. "Here's a letter from Bernard. He is safe and sound hiding at Cove Castle."