w I had come to be driving with Archie that night, and although I
evaded his questions it was plain that he had a shrewd inkling of the
reason. Not to weary you with a long account of this disagreeable and
humiliating affair, I will only say that from that day forward I became
subject to a determined system of persecution from Clement Henshaw. He
waylaid me on every possible occasion, holding over me a covert threat of
the exposure of my escapade, till at last I was absolutely afraid to go
outside the house for fear of meeting him."

"He wanted to marry you?" Gifford suggested.

Edith Morriston gave a little shudder. "I suppose so. He was always
making love to me, and was quite impervious to snubbing. When, in
consequence of my keeping within bounds of the house and garden, he could
not see me, he took to writing, and kept me in terror lest one of his
letters should fall into my stepmother's hands. I wished afterwards that
I had taken a bold line, confessed what had happened, and defied the
consequences. I think it was the fear of being disgraced in my brother's
eyes on his return which kept me from doing so.

"In the midst of my worry my father fell into a state of bad health and
we took him down to the Devonshire coast for change of air. Needless to
say Henshaw soon found out our retreat, and to my dismay appeared there.
His persecution went on with renewed vigour and I, having less chance
there of escaping it, was nearly at my wits' end, when fate curiously
enough again intervened. We were caught in a storm on a long country
excursion, my stepmother got a severe chill and within a week was dead.
We returned to Haynthorpe, my father being now in a very precarious state
of health, Henshaw followed us with a pertinacity that was almost
devilish. But I now ventured to defy his threats of exposing me; he
strenuously denied any such intention and declared himself madly in love
with me. I had now taken courage enough to reject him uncompromisingly; I
forbade him ever to speak to me again, and, as after that he disappeared
from the village, began to flatter myself that I had got rid of him.

"My father grew worse now from day to day; he lingered through the summer
and with the chill days of autumn the end came. Dick hurried home and
arrived just in time to see him alive. He left a much larger fortune than
we had supposed him to possess, and Dick, always fond of sport, was soon
in negotiation for this place which had come i