"Not till after dinner, dear."
"Oh, isn't it jolly! A real St. Bernard dog!"—capering about. "You are a nice man!"
"What are you making such a noise for, Cis?" exclaimed his mother coming in, looking admirably well, fresh, becomingly dressed. "Go away, dear, and be made tidy for your dinner. Well, Mr. De Burgh, I never dreamed of your arriving so early. Did you get up in the middle of the night?"
"Not exactly. The fact is, I must drive over to Revelstoke late this evening and catch the mail train. I have a command to dine with the Baron to-morrow, to talk over some business of importance, and dared not refuse, as you can imagine. The everlasting old tyrant has been quite amiable to me of late."
"Then you'll not be here to escort me back to town, and I hate travelling alone!" cried Mrs. Ormonde.
"Unfortunately no," said De Burgh. "But I have a piece of news for you that will freeze the marrow in your bones: Errington is completely ruined."
"Impossible!" cried both his hearers at once.
"It's too true, I assure you. When, after the old man's death, he began to look into things with his solicitor, he was startled to find certain deficiencies. Then the head clerk, the manager, who had everything in his hands—bossed the show, in short—disappeared, and on further examination it proved that the whole concern was a mere shell, out of which this scoundrel had sucked the capital. There was an awful amount of debt to other houses, several of which would have come down, and ruined the unfortunates connected with them, if Errington had not come forward and sacrificed almost all he possessed to retrieve the credit of his name. He says he ought to have undertaken the risks as well as reaped the profit of the concern. Garston Hall is advertised for sale; so is the house in Berkley Square; his stud is brought to the hammer—everything is given up. What he'll do I haven't an idea. But I must say I think his sense of honor is a little overstrained."
"And Lady Alice!" ejaculated Katherine.
"Of course Melford will soon settle that, if it is not settled already, for a good deal was done before the matter got wind. There hasn't been such a crash for a long time. In short, Errington is utterly, completely ruined."