"To the Hall," replied Mr. Clendon gravely. "Yes," he said to Derrick,
as the carriage drove off, "the Marquess--I mean your uncle, Talbot,
wants to see you, naturally."

"You have told him?" said Derrick. "Poor man!"

"Yes, I have told him; and, strangely enough, he welcomed the news. And
yet it is not strange; for, alas! he knew the character of his son, knew
that he was not worthy to bear the title. There is something more on my
brother's mind than I am cognisant of. Some secret which worries him,"
he added.

Derrick remained silent. He dared not probe the mystery of the hidden
jewel-case, of Heyton's sudden flight; but it was evident to him that
Mr. Jacobs intended to conceal any knowledge he might have, and Derrick
was only too thankful to concur in that concealment.

On their way to the Hall, Derrick and his father spoke of many things of
the past and the future; and presently the old man said in a low voice, "You will be married soon, Derrick?"

"The first moment Celia will have me," replied Derrick, promptly.

"I would like you to spend your honeymoon in South America," said his
father.

Derrick understood, and he nodded and laid his hand on the old man's.

"And you, sir? Shall you go there--soon?"

Mr. Clendon shook his head. "No," he responded. "The chasm between us is
too wide, has divided us for too long a time. But it shall be as your
mother wishes. You will talk to her----We will leave her future and mine
on the knees of the gods. But yours, thank God! is assured. How
strangely Fate works! How little I thought, when I helped Celia to come
to the Hall, that I was lending a guiding hand to the future of my son's
wife. Derrick, that same fate has been very good to you."