d quietly. "One would hardly have fancied
you would be so startled at a harmless joke intended to test them for
you. There have been several spendthrifts and highly successful
drunkards in my family, but, with the exception of my namesake, who was
hanged like a Jacobite gentleman for taking, sword in hand, their
despatches from two of Cumberland's dragoons, we have hitherto drawn
the line at stealing."

"I'm not interested in genealogy, and I don't appreciate jests of the
sort you have just tried," Melhuish answered somewhat shakily. "I'll
take your word that you meant no harm, and I request further and
careful consideration before you return a definite answer to my
friends' suggestions."

"You shall have it in a few days," Geoffrey promised; and Melhuish, who
determined to receive the answer under the open sunlight, and, if
possible, with assistance near at hand, turned toward the mouth of the
adit. Because he thought it wiser, he walked behind Geoffrey.

The afternoon was not yet past when Thurston stood leaning on the back
of a stone seat outside a quaint old hall, which had once been a feudal
fortalice and was now attached to an unprofitable farm. Because the
impoverished gentleman, who held a long lease on the ancient building,
had let one wing to certain sportsmen, several of Geoffrey's neighbors
had gathered on the indifferently-kept lawn to enjoy a tennis match.
Miss Millicent Austin sat in an angle of the stone seat. Her little
feet, encased in white shoes, reposed upon a cushion that one of the
sportsmen had insisted on bringing to her. Her hands lay idly folded
in her lap. The delicate hands were characteristic, for Millicent
Austin was slight and dainty. With pale gold hair and pink and white
complexion, she was a perfect type of Saxon beauty, though some of her
rivals said the color of her eyes was too light a blue. They also
added that the blue eyes were very quick to notice where their owner's
interests lay.

An indefinite engagement had long existed between the girl and the man
beside her, and at one time they had cherished a degree of affection
for each other; but when the merry, high-spirited girl returned from
London changed into a calculating woman, Geoffrey was bound up, mind
and body, in his mine, and Millicent began to wonder whether, with her
advantages, she might not do better than to marry a dalesman burdened
by heavy debts. They formed a curious contrast, the man brown-haired,