re
here, but took to flight until they left.'

"'You didn't never know her, miss. The brave she was! She'd have stood
up to lions. She've been here all the while: and only to think what her
innocent eyes and ears must have took in! There was another couple--'
Mrs. Carkeek sunk her voice.

"'Oh, hush!' said I, 'if I'm to have any peace of mind in this house!'

"'But you won't go, miss? She loves you, I know she do. And think what
you might be leaving her to--what sort of tenant might come next. For
she can't go. She've been here ever since her father sold the place.
He died soon after. You musn't go!'

"Now I had resolved to go, but all of a sudden I felt how mean this
resolution was.

"'After all,' said I, 'there's nothing to be afraid of.'

"'That's it, miss; nothing at all. I don't even believe it's so very
uncommon. Why, I've heard my mother tell of farmhouses where the rooms
were swept every night as regular as clockwork, and the floors sanded,
and the pots and pans scoured, and all while the maids slept. They put
it down to the piskies; but we know better, miss, and now we've got the
secret between us we can lie easy in our beds, and if we hear anything,
say "God bless the child!" and go to sleep.'

"'Mrs. Carkeek,' said I, 'there's only one condition I have to make.'

"'What's that?'

"'Why, that you let me kiss you.'

"'Oh, you dear!' said Mrs. Carkeek as we embraced: and this was as close
to familiarity as she allowed herself to go in the whole course of my
acquaintance with her.

"I spent three years at Tresillack, and all that while Mrs. Carkeek
lived with me and shared the secret. Few women, I dare to say, were
ever so completely wrapped around with love as we were during those
three years. It ran through my waking life like a song: it smoothed my
pillow, touched and made my table comely, in summer lifted the heads of
the flowers as I passed, and in winter watched the fire with me and kept
it bright.

"'Why did I ever leave Tresillack?' Because one day, at the end of five
years, Farmer Hosking brought me word that he had sold the house--or was
about to sell it; I forget which. There was no avoiding it, at any
rate; the purchaser being a Colonel Kendall, a brother of the old
Squire.'

"'A married man?' I asked.

"'Yes, miss; with a family of eight. As pretty children as ever you
see, and the mother a good lady. It's the old home to Colonel Kendall.'

"'I see. And that is