"  I  came  on  purpose,"  he  said,  as  if  that  was  an  additional
virtue,  "  to  speak  to  you,  dear  Lady  Markland,  very  seriously
about  Geoff"  And  whether  it  was  by  his  own  impulse,  or
because  he  was  written  to  on  the  subject,  and  inspired  by
zealous  friends  nearer  home,  old  Mr.  Markland  wrote  to
his  dear  niece  in  the  same  strain,  assuring  her  that  it  would
be  far  the  best  thing  to  send  him  to  school.  To  school !
Her  little  delicate  boy,  not  nine  till  April,  who  had  never


xvH.  AND  HIS  FAMILY.  241

been  out  of  his  mother's  care !  Lady  Markland  suffered  a
great  deal  from  these  attacks,  and  she  tried  hard,  by  getting
up  early,  by  sitting  up  late,  to  find  time  for  Geoff,  as  of  old ;
but  Geoff  himself  had  fallen  into  the  new  ways,  and  the
lessons  languished.      What  was  she  to  do  ?

And  ■  then  it  was  that  the  alternative  of  a  tutor  was
suggested  to  her.  A  tutor  !  That  did  not  seem  so  tcrril)le.
She  confided  her  troubles  to  Warrender,  who  had  fallen
into  the  way  of  riding  over  to  Markland  two  or  three  times
a  week,  of  checking  Dickinson's  accounts  for  her,  and  look-
ing up  little  bits  of  law  as  between  landlord  and  tenant,
and  doing  his  best  to  make  himself  necessary ;  not  with  any
deep-laid  plan,  but  only  because  to  be  near  her,  and  serve
lier,  was  becoming  more  and  more  the  desire  of  liis  life.
