od some one stepped from one of the side paths
full in my way. It was Richard Dawson, and I was amazed at the havoc the
sufferings of one night had wrought in him.

"Don't be afraid of me, Bawn," he said. "I'm not here to trouble you,
only there is something I want to give you. Here are those precious
papers my father held. I have been waiting here for some chance
messenger to take them. They are my gift to you. Let Lord St. Leger see
that he has everything and then destroy them."

He held out a sealed packet to me and I took it.

"Everything is there," he said. "Henceforth we are as harmless as a
snake that has had its poison-bag out. Think kindly of me, Bawn. I am
going a long journey. I have had a scene with my father. He swears that
not a penny of his money shall come to me. What matter? I shall do
without it very well. Good-bye, Bawn."

"God-speed," I said, altering the word of farewell.

He turned round and came back to me.

"Nay, not God-speed," he said harshly. "God has little to do with such
as I am."

And then he was gone.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE JUDGMENT OF GOD

I walked into the dining-room and found Uncle Luke at breakfast, with
Lord and Lady St. Leger on each side of him, eating little themselves,
but pressing one thing after another on him.

I felt a sense of a new alertness about the house. Although the old
servants were faithful they had grown a little slipshod in their ways,
seeing that it mattered little to their employers. Now things had
suddenly assumed a swept and garnished air. One felt that the master had
come home.

They all looked up at me with some expectation when I came in.

"Where have you been so early, Bawn?" my grandmother asked, while Uncle
Luke came and set a chair for me and stood smiling at me; I was glad
that in those waste places of the earth he had not forgotten those fine
debonair ways which of old had made the women fall in love with him.

"I have been to Castle Clody," I answered.

"I thought as much. Why did not Mary come back with you? Was she
transported at the good news?"

"She thought perhaps that Uncle Luke would----"

I paused for words. I had a feeling that even in this case, where I was
sure that Uncle Luke cared for his old love, I should respect my
godmother's dignity. Even Luke L'Estrange ought not to be sure that she
expected him.

"I thought she would have come to rejoice with us," my grandmother said
disappointedly; and my grandfather