Evening star., 1909-04-14
CHAPTER x-Continued.

The arrival. Of Col. Ogilvie's letter. sent
on to him from London, made in a way q
new trouble for him: for. while he was de-
lighted to get SO friendly an overture. II
was. he saw. but another difficulty ahead
Of him. He must either reply in his false
name. which was now hateful to him; or
he must leave the letter. for the present.
unanswered. This latter alternative
would be dangerous with man SO sensi-
tive and SO punctilious: but. all told. 1t
was the lesser evil. He had had oppor-
tunity to make up his mind on the sub
ject before the letter came. for Aunt Judy
had said in her last letter that Col. Ogilvie
had spoken about writing to him before
they should arrive in London. Still 1t
was a sore trial to him to be SO discour-
teous, with the added chagrin that he
might-probably would-stand in his way
with the one man in the world whom he
wished to propitiate.
AS he did not know anything about the
history of Col. Ogilvfe's family he went
to the peerage books and made lists of
the bearers of that name In its different
spellings; and then as he decided to 60 to
many Of the. places named. he made runs
into Perthshire and Forfar. He came to
the conclusion that. he must have misun-
derstood Col. Ogilvie in alluding to the
p,
a good. deal Of local information which
might be pleasing to his prospective
father-in-laW.
one morning he had a letter which quite
f1uttered, him. 1t was from Aunt Judy
telling him that Cot. Ogilvie had. announc-
ed his intention Of starting on the then
coming Thursday for the north, and that
he had given as the direction Of his let
ters till further notice. the linn OF Greet
ing" Ambleside. The unqualified pleas
ure which he received from this news was
neutralized by the postscript:
"By the way-this Of course in your
private ear. now and hereafter-Col.
Ogilvie is vastly disappointed that you
have not been to see him in London, and
that you have not even replied to his let
about this. / sincerely hope so, for he
looks on any breach OF courtesy or any
defect in It as an objectionable sin. I
know from the fact Of his mentioning 1t
1t to heart. Do. do my dear friend. who
have done SO much for US and whose
friendship we wish to hold. repair this
without delay. He is an old man and
may possibly expect more from a-younger
man than from one of his own standing.
am sure that II there has been any
omission. there is on your part a good
reason for it. But do not lose any time
II you wish to. please us all-and I am
sure you do-you would do we'll to go up
" AiuUicSIUC-iI yOu udSo HoL SCcu
aiready-and call on him there. And do
like a dear man drop me d line at once
to say You have received this and telling
me what you intend to do
He sat for a while quite still, putting
his thoughts in order. 1t was now Mon
day, SO that Col. Ogilvie would have been
already some days at Ambleside. He took
II for granted that Joy was with him. bur
he could not help q qualm OF doubt about
even that. Aunt Judy had not mention
ed her In the matter. The only possible
allusion was in the underlining OF the
word "all." Otherwise the letter was too
direct and too serious for any cryptic
meaning.
He came to the conclusion that his best
plan would be to go at once to some
place on Windermere and from there go
quietly to Ambleside and find out for him.
self how things lay. The best place for
him to stay at would, for his purposes. be
Bowness. There he would leave his car
with the chauffeur and drive In q car
riage to ) Ambleside. When there he
would contrive to meet II possible Joy