e promoted."

"If you say I must, sister Mildred, why, then I must: and there's an end
of it. But your discipline is forty times more severe than the German
Baron's at Richmond. Father looks pale this morning," continued Henry,
as he turned his eyes towards the porch, where Mr. Lindsay was now seen
walking forward and back, with his arms folded across his breast.
"Something perpetually troubles him, Mildred. I wish that devil, Tyrrel,
had been buried before he ever found his way to the Dove Cote! See he
comes this way."

Both Mildred and Henry ran to meet Lindsay, and encountered him before
he had advanced a dozen paces over the lawn.

"Such a day, father!" said Mildred, as she affectionately took his hand.
"It is a luxury to breathe this air."

"God has given us a beautiful heaven, my children, and a rich and
bountiful earth. He has filled them both with blessings. Man only mars
them with his cursed passions," said Lindsay, with a sober accent.

"You have heard bad news, father?" said Henry, inquiringly; "what has
happened?"

Mildred grew suddenly pale.

"We shall hear glorious news, boy, before many days," replied Lindsay;
"as yet, all is uncertain. Henry, away to your sports, or to your
studies. Mildred, I have something for your ear, and so, my child, walk
with me a while."

Henry took his leave, looking back anxiously at his sister, whose
countenance expressed painful alarm. Mildred accompanied her father
slowly and silently to the small veranda that shaded the door of the
gable next the terrace.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

MILDRED PUT TO A SEVERE TRIAL:--HER FIRMNESS.

"My mind troubles me," said Lindsay: "Mildred, hear me--and mark what I
say. Our fortunes are coming to a period of deep interest: it is
therefore no time to deal in evasive speeches, or to dally with coy and
girlish feelings. I wish, my daughter, to be understood."

"Father, have I offended you?" inquired Mildred, struck with the painful
and almost repulsive earnestness of Lindsay's manner.

"Arthur Butler has been at the Dove Cote," he said, sternly, "and you
have concealed it from me. That was not like my child."

"Father!" exclaimed Mildred, bursting into tears.

"Nay--these tears shall not move me from my resolution. As a parent I
had a right, Mildred, to expect obedience from you; but you saw him in
the very despite of my commands: here, on the confines of the Dove Cote,
you saw him."

"I did--I did."

"And you were silent,