, which were perfectly sodden; while his whole dress, nay, even
his hair and beard, was soaked and drenched, so that I taxed him with
having been in the water.

"Yes, I went in after a dog," he said, and as he gave a shiver, and had
just pulled off his second boot, I asked no more questions, but hunted
him upstairs to put on dry clothes without loss of time; and when we
met at dinner, Eustace was so full of our doings at the castle, and
Dora of hers with Miss Woolmer, that his bath was entirely driven out
of my head.

But the next day, as I was preparing for my afternoon's walk, the
unwonted sound of our door-bell was heard. "Is our introduction working
already?" thought I, little expecting the announcement--"The Misses
Stympson."

However, there were Stympsons and Stympsons, so that even this did not
prepare me for being rushed at by all three from Lake House--two aunts
and one niece--Avice, Henny, and Birdie, with "How is he?" "Where is
he? He would not take anything. I hope he went to bed and had
something hot." "Is he in the house? No cold, I hope. We have
brought the poor dear fellow for him to see. He seems in pain to-day;
we thought he would see him."

At last I got in a question edgeways as to the antecedents, as the trio
kept on answering one another in chorus, "Poor dear Nep--your
cousin--nephew, I mean--the bravest--"

Then it flashed on me. "Do you mean that it was for your dog that
Harold went into the water yesterday!"

"Oh, the bravest, most generous, the most forgiving. So tender-handed!
It must be all a calumny. I wish we had never believed it. He could
never lift a hand against anyone. We will contradict all rumours.
Report is so scandalous. Is he within?"

Harold had been at the Hydriot works ever since breakfast, but on my
first question the chorus struck up again, and I might well quail at
the story. "Lake Mill; you know the place, Miss Alison?"

Indeed I did. The lake, otherwise quiet to sluggishness, here was fed
by the rapid little stream, and at the junction was a great mill, into
which the water was guided by a sharp descent, which made it sweep down
with tremendous force, and, as I had seen from the train, the river was
swelled by the thaw and spread far beyond its banks. "The mill-race!" I
cried in horror.

"Just observe. Dear Nep has such a passion for the water, and Birdie
thoughtlessly threw a stick some way above the weir. I never shall
forget what I felt when I