t him answer for himself.

"Bear with me, Miss Naomi," he said. "I think I can make you understand
me. There are eyes on the watch, and ears on the watch, in the house;
and there are some footsteps--I won't say whose--so soft, that no
person can hear them."

The last allusion evidently made itself understood. Naomi stopped him
before he could say more.

"Well, where is it to be?" she asked, resignedly. "Will the garden do,
Mr. John?"

"Thank you kindly, miss; the garden will do." He pointed to a
gravel-walk beyond us, bathed in the full flood of the moonlight.
"There," he said, "where we can see all round us, and be sure that
nobody is listening. At ten o'clock." He paused, and addressed himself
to me. "I beg to apologize, sir, for intruding myself on your
conversation. Please to excuse me."

His eyes rested with a last anxious, pleading look on Naomi's face. He
bowed to us, and melted away into the shadow of the tree. The distant
sound of a door closed softly came to us through the stillness of the
night. John Jago had re-entered the house.

Now that he was out of hearing, Naomi spoke to me very earnestly:

"Don't suppose, sir, I have any secrets with _him_," she said. "I know
no more than you do what he wants with me. I have half a mind not to
keep the appointment when ten o'clock comes. What would you do in my
place?"

"Having made the appointment," I answered, "it seems to be due to
yourself to keep it. If you feel the slightest alarm, I will wait in
another part of the garden, so that I can hear if you call me."

She received my proposal with a saucy toss of the head, and a smile of
pity for my ignorance.

"You are a stranger, Mr. Lefrank, or you would never talk to me in that
way. In America, we don't do the men the honor of letting them alarm
us. In America, the women take care of themselves. He has got my
promise to meet him, as you say; and I must keep my promise. Only
think," she added, speaking more to herself than to me, "of John Jago
finding out Miss Meadowcroft's nasty, sly, underhand ways in the house!
Most men would never have noticed her."

I was completely taken by surprise. Sad and severe Miss Meadowcroft a
listener and a spy! What next at Morwick Farm?

"Was that hint at the watchful eyes and ears, and the soft footsteps,
really an allusion to Mr. Meadowcroft's daughter?" I asked.

"Of course it was. Ah! she has imposed on you as she imposes on
everybody else. The false wretch! She i