't be unhappy any more, little maiden."

"Oh, pray, sir!" cried Polly again.

"I'm master here, my child; and I won't have anybody about me made
unhappy if I can stay it. Now, trot along."

The girl gave him one timid glance, and then went on, while he turned in
the direction of Penreife.

Before he had gone far, though, he turned back, with a smile on his lip.

"I'll wager a sovereign," he thought, "that Humphrey was not down at the
long copse, but pretty close at hand, watching for the safety of his
sweetheart."

He walked sharply back to a curve in the woodland path, and found that
he was right; for some distance ahead he caught sight of Polly's pretty
muslin dress, and across it there was plainly visible a bar of what
resembled olive velveteen.

"Eight," said Trevor, smiling. "Well, why shouldn't they be happy too?
Now, then, to have it out with Mrs Lloyd."

Volume 2, Chapter XVIII.

A REVELATION.

"If you please," said a hard, cold voice.

And Richard Trevor started to find himself face to face with the object
of his remark, one which he had uttered aloud.

Trevor stood for a moment looking round; but they were quite alone, and
standing now in the lane where Mr Mervyn captured Fin Rea in the rugged
tree far up the rocky bank.

"You had better return to the house, Mrs Lloyd," said Trevor, coldly.
"I want to speak to you."

"You can speak now, if you please," said the woman, in a low, suppressed
voice. "I don't suppose you would like the servants to know."

Trevor was getting angry, and he took a step towards the woman, and held
up a finger.

"You have been watching me, Mrs Lloyd."

"Yes," she said, coolly--"I came on purpose."

"You sent that poor girl here, then, Mrs Lloyd, and you have been
playing the spy?"

"You can call it any hard names you like, Mr Richard," said the woman,
defiantly.

She rolled her white apron round her arms, tightened her lips until they
formed a thin livid line, and looked at him without flinching.

Trevor bit his lip to keep down his rising passion, and then went on--

"Mrs Lloyd," he said, "I thought we had made a truce. Mind, you are
the one who breaks it, not I."

The woman laughed mockingly.

"We may as well understand one another," said Trevor; "so speak out.
You have been forcing that poor girl, day after day, to throw herself in
my way--have you not?"

"Yes."

She nodded her head many times, as she said the word with quite a sharp
hiss.

"