r side of my
bed, telling me tales of their dear Cousin Aura's kindness. When my
uncle returned to Bowstead I could bear inaction no longer, and profited
by my sick leave to travel down hither, trusting that she might have
found her way to her home, and longing to confess all and implore your
pardon, sir,--and, alas! Your aid in seeking her."

With the large tears in his eyes, the youth rose from his chair as he
spoke, and knelt on one knee before the Major, who exclaimed, extremely
affected--"By all that is sacred, you have it, my dear boy. It is a
wretched affair, but you meant to act honourably throughout, and you
have suffered heavily. May God bless you both, and give us back my dear
child. My Lady must have been very hard with her, to make her thus fly,
all alone."

"You do not know, I suppose, any cause for so timid a creature
preferring flight to a little restraint?"

"It seems," said Sir Amyas sadly, "that something the dear girl said
gave colour to the charge of having caused the fire, and that my mother
in her first passion threatened her with the constable!"

"My poor Aurelia! that might well scare her," cried Betty: "but how
could it be?"

"They say she spoke of using something her sister had given her to
discover what the mystery was that alarmed her."

"Ah! that gunpowder trick of Mr. Arden's--I always hated it!" exclaimed
Betty.

"Gunpowder indeed!" growled the old soldier. "Well, if ever there's
mischief among the children, Harriet is always at the bottom of it. I
hope Mr. Belamour made her confess if she had a hand in it."

"I believe he did," said Sir Amyas.

"Just like her to set the match to the train and then run away," said
the Major.

"Still, sir," said Betty, her womanhood roused to defence, "though I am
angered and grieved enough that Harriet should have left Aurelia to face
the consequences of the act she instigated, I must confess that even by
Sir Amyas's own showing, if he will allow me to say so, my sisters were
justified in wishing to understand the truth."

"That is what my uncle tells me," said the baronet. "He declares that
if I had attended to his stipulations, restrained my fervour, or kept my
distance, there would have been neither suspicion nor alarm. As if I had
not restrained myself!"

"Ay, I dare say," said the Major, a little amused.

"Well, sir, what could a man do with most bewitching creature in the
world, his own wife, too, on the next chair to him?"

There