passed between Walter and Claire. "That will be a
satisfaction. Indeed, I shall feel quite safe, so long as your son is
here. I wish now I had moved the things before; but I had hoped that you
would have been allowed to remain in quarters here all the winter. Had it
not been for that, I should never have decided as I did."

The next morning the troop started.

"The place seems strangely quiet," Walter said, as he strolled out into
the garden with Claire, after breakfast. "It seems terrible to think
that, in three or four days, it will be deserted altogether, and that you
will have gone."

"It is horrid," the girl said, with tears gathering in her eyes. "I hate
King William and King James both," she went on petulantly. "Why can't
they fight their quarrel out alone, instead of troubling everyone else? I
don't know which of them I hate the most."

"But there is a compensation," Walter said with a smile.

"I am sure I don't see any compensation," the girl said. "What do you
mean, Walter?"

"I mean," Walter said, "that if they had not quarrelled, we might never
have met."

"There is something in that," Claire said softly. "No; I don't know that
I ought quite to hate them, after all."

By which it will be seen that Walter Davenant and Claire Conyers had
already arrived at a thorough understanding, as to their feelings towards
each other. After this, as was natural between young persons so situated,
their talk wandered away into the future, and the present was already
forgotten.

In the house, everyone was at work. Mrs. Conyers' servants had all
returned, when she came back to the house, and these were now busy, with
the assistance of Larry and the four troopers left behind, in taking down
and packing pictures, taking up carpets, and getting furniture ready for
removal. In the afternoon, Walter assisted in the work of packing. As he
was dressing for dinner, Larry, as usual, came into his room.

"I suppose, your honour," he said, after putting out Walter's clothes,
"you will be setting a watch tonight?"

"Yes, Larry, I was intending to do so. You don't think there is any
special occasion for it, do you?"

"I don't know, your honour. We hear tales of the rapparees burning every
Protestant house in the district. As long as the troop was here, av
coorse the boys kept away; but there is a powerful lot of plunder in the
house, and the news that the troop have gone will go through the country
quick enough. The boys hav