t talk of changes for the better before Mister
Ironsyde died then?"

"Talk of dead men won't go far. We'll hear no more of that."

Sarah frowned and went her way. At the door, however, she turned.

"I might get to hear something about it next Sunday very like," she
said. "I'm going into Bridport to my Aunt Nelly at 'The Seven Stars';
and she's a great friend of Richard Gurd at 'The Tiger'; and 'tis there
Mister Raymond spends half his time, they say. So Mr. Gurd may have
learned a bit about it."

"No doubt he'll hear a lot of words, and as for Raymond Ironsyde, his
father knew him for a man with a bit of a heart in him and didn't trust
him accordingly. But you can take it from me--"

A bell rang and its note struck Mr. Baggs dumb. He ceased both to speak
and work, dropped his hank, turned down his shirt sleeves and put on his
coat. Sarah at the stroke of the bell also manifested no further
interest in Levi's forebodings but left him abruptly. For it was noon
and the dinner-hour had come.

CHAPTER IV

CHAINS FOR RAYMOND

Raymond Ironsyde had spent his life thus far in a healthy and selfish
manner. He owned no objection to hard work of a physical nature, for as
a sportsman and athlete he had achieved fame and was jealous to increase
it. He preserved the perspective of a boy into manhood; while his father
waited, not without exasperation, for him to reach adult estate in mind
as well as body. Henry Ironsyde was still waiting when he died and left
Raymond to the mercy of Daniel.

Now the brothers had met to thresh out the situation; and a day came
when Raymond lunched with his friend and fellow sportsman, Arthur
Waldron, of North Hill House, and furnished him with particulars.

In time past, Raymond's grandfather had bought a thousand acres of land
on the side of North Hill. Here he destroyed one old farmhouse and
converted another into the country-seat of his family. He lived and died
there; but his son, Henry, cared not for it, and the place had been let
to successive tenants for many years.

Waldron was the last of these, and Raymond's ambition had always been
some day to return to North Hill House and dwell in his grandfather's
home.

At luncheon the party of three sat at a round table on a polished floor
of oak. Estelle played hostess and gazed with frank admiration at the
chattering visitor. He brought a proposition that made her feel very
excited to learn what her father would think of it.

M