are two on the doorstep."

He would have lost. There was not a clergyman of any sort in or about
the house.

"Isn't Mr. Barnes here?" said he to his mother.

Mrs. Trelyon flushed slightly as she said, "No, Harry, Mr. Barnes is not
here, nor is he likely to visit here again."

Now, Mr. Roscorla would at once have perceived that a strange little
story lay behind that simple speech, but Mr. Harry, paying no attention
to it, merely said he was heartily glad to hear of it, and showed his
gratitude by being unusually polite to his mother during the rest of his
stay.

"And so Mr. Roscorla has come back?" his mother said. "General Weekes
was asking about him only yesterday. We must see if he will come up to
dinner the night after to-morrow; and Miss Rosewarne also."

"You may ask her--you ought to ask her--but she won't come," said he.

"How do you know?" Mrs. Trelyon said with a gentle wonder. "She has been
here very often of late."

"Have you let her walk up?"

"No, I have generally driven down for her when I wanted to see her; and
the way she has been working for these people is extraordinary--never
tired, always cheerful, ready to be bothered by anybody, and patient
with their suspicions and simplicity beyond belief. I am sure Mr.
Roscorla will have an excellent wife."

"I am not at all sure that he will," said her son, goaded past
endurance.

"Why, Harry," said his mother, with her eyes wide open, "I thought you
had a great respect for Miss Rosewarne."

"I have," he said abruptly--"far too great a respect to like the notion
of her marrying that old fool."

"Would you rather not have him to dinner?"

"Oh, I should like to have him to dinner."

For one evening, at least, this young man considered, these two would be
separated. He was pretty sure that Roscorla would come to meet General
Weekes: he was positive that Wenna would not come to the house while he
himself was in it.

But the notion that, except during this one evening, his rival would
have free access to the inn, and would spend pleasant hours there, and
would take Wenna with him for walks along the coast, maddened him. He
dared not go down to the village for fear of seeing these two together.
He walked about the grounds or went away over to the cliffs, torturing
his heart with imagining Roscorla's opportunities. And once or twice he
was on the point of going straight down to Eglosilyan, and calling on
Wenna, before Roscorla's face, to be true t