er? Oh, surely she is with her sister!"

"No, madam, her sisters knows nothing of her. Cousin, you have children
of your own! I entreat of you to tell me what you have done with her."

"How should I have done anything with her? I who have been feeding all
this time on the assurance that she had returned to you."

"How could a child like her do so?"

"We know she had money," said Lady Belamour.

"And we know," said Betty, fixing her eyes on the lady, "that though she
escaped, on the first alarm, as far as Sedhurst, and was there seen,
she had decided on returning to Bowstead and giving herself up to you
Ladyship."

"Indeed? At what time was that?" exclaimed my Lady.

"Some time in the afternoon of Sunday!"

"Ah! then I must have left Bowstead. I was pledged to her Majesty's
card-table, and royal commands cannot be disregarded, so I had to
go away in grievous anxiety for my poor boy. She meant to return to
Bowstead, did she? Ah. Does not an idea strike you that old Amyas
Belamour may know more than he confesses! He has been playing a double
game throughout."

"He is as anxious to find the dear girl as we are madam."

"So he may seem to you and to my poor infatuated boy, but you see those
crazed persons are full of strange devices and secrets, as indeed we
have already experienced. I see what you would say; he may appear sane
and plausible enough to a stranger, but to those who have known him
ever since his misfortunes, the truth is but too plain. He was harmless
enough as long as he was content to remain secluded in his dark chamber,
but now that I hear he has broken loose, Heaven knows what mischief he
may do. My dear cousin Delavie, you are the prop left to me in these
troubles, with my poor good man in the hands of those cruel pirates,
who may be making him work in chains for all I know," and the tears came
into her beautiful eyes.

"They will not do that," said Major Delavie, eager to reassure her; "I
have heard enough of their tricks to know that they keep such game as he
most carefully till they can get a ransom."

"Your are sure of that!"

"Perfectly. I met an Italian fellow at Vienna who told me how it was all
managed by the Genoese bankers."

"Ah! I was just thinking that you would be the only person who could be
of use--you who know foreign languages and all their ways. If you could
go abroad, and arrange it for me!"

"If my daughter were restored---" began the Major.

"I see what you would s