"Coming immediately."
The telegram was addressed to, "Milroy, The Castle, Eagleton."
When the boy had been dismissed, Kenneth looked at the pink paper again. It simply contained these words—
"The Earl is ill—wishes to see you as soon as possible."
He got out his Bradshaw, and found that, being Christmas Day, there was only one train by which he could go, as the trains were running as on Sunday. There was no time to lose, for he must be in New Street in three quarters of an hour.
He made his preparations forthwith, hastily packing his hand-bag. He told Mrs. Hall that he had been summoned to a relative who was ill, and he managed to arrive on Platform 5 a few minutes before the train was due.
During the journey his thoughts were very busy. What would he find on his arrival? Had the Lord's leisure, for which he had been trying to wait patiently, at last arrived? He had trusted the matter to higher care than his own. Was that trust now to be rewarded?
It was late at night when he reached North Eaton. There was no 'bus to meet the train, and no cab could be obtained. However, after he had walked a little way along the dark road, he saw the lights of a carriage coming to meet him. It stopped when it came up to him, and the coachman, bending down to speak to him, said—
"Beg pardon, sir, but are you Mr. Fortescue?"
Kenneth having replied in the affirmative, he said: