ting and information that Michael
had sent her a basket of primroses and a cowslip ball, which she would
find in the hall.

'What do you say, Cea?' said Bertha, anxious to demonstrate her manners.

'Thank you, my lord, and Master Michael,' she uttered, but she was
evidently preoccupied with what she had to tell Miss Morton. 'Oh'm,
there was such a nasty man here! And he wanted me, and said he was my
father, but he wasn't. He was the same man that gave Master Mite and me
the bull's-eyes when we were naughty and Louisa went away.'

'Are you sure, Cea?' both exclaimed, but to the child of six the very
eagerness of the question brought a certain confusion, and though more
gently Lord Northmoor asked her to describe him, she could not do it, and
indeed she had been only five when the encounter had taken place. The
urgency of the inquiry somehow seemed to dispose her to cry, as if she
thought she had been naughty, and she had to be dismissed to the cowslip
ball.

'If the child is right, that man cannot be her father at all,' said Lord
Northmoor. 'That man's name is Rattler, and he is well known at
Westhaven.'

'Should you know him?'

'I never saw him, but I could soon find those who have done so.'

'If we could only prove it! Oh, what a relief it would be! I dare not
even send the child to school--as I meant to do, Northmoor, for indeed we
don't spoil her--for fear she should be kidnapped; and I don't know if
the school-board officer won't be after her, and I can't give as a reason
"for fear she should be stolen by her father."'

'Not exactly. It ought to be settled once for all. Perhaps the child
will tell more when you have her alone.'

'Is not Rattler only too like a nickname, or is he a native of
Westhaven?'

This Lord Northmoor thought he could find out, but the dinner was hardly
over before a message came that the man Jones had called again.

'Perhaps I had better see him alone,' said the guest, and Bertha was only
too glad to accept the offer, so he proceeded to the little room opening
into the hall, where interviews with tradesfolk or petitioners were held.

The man had a blue jersey, a cap, and an evidently sailor air, or rather
that of the coasting, lower stamp of seaman; but he was tall, rather
handsome, and younger-looking than would have been expected of Cea's
father. He looked somewhat taken aback by the appearance of a gentleman,
but he stood his ground.

'So I understand that you have