d a master who did not
keep his place.

Bounder soon discovered that, in "Cobbler" Horn, he had a master of whom
it was impossible to approve. Bounder "see'd from the fust as Mr. Horn
warn't no gentleman." It was always the way with "them as was made rich
all of a suddint like." And Bounder puffed out his red cheeks till they
looked like two toy balloons. It was "bad enough to be kept waiting
outside the station, while your master stood talking to a little feller as
looked as like a rag and bone man as anythink; but when you was required
to stop the kerridge and pick up every tramp as you overtook on the road,
it was coming it a little too strong." This last was a slight exaggeration
on the part of Bounder. The exact truth was that, on one occasion, his
master had stopped the carriage for the purpose of giving a lift to a
respectable, though not well-to-do, pedestrian, and in another instance,
a working-class woman and her tired little one had been invited to take
their seats on Bounder's sacred cushions, Bounder's master himself
alighting to lift the bedusted child to her place.

But this was not the worst. The woman who lived in the little cottage past
which Marian had trotted so eagerly, on the morning of her disappearance
so long ago, had a daughter who was a cripple from disease of the spine.
She was the only daughter, and, being well up in her teens, would have
been a great help to her mother if she had been well. "Cobbler" Horn was
deeply moved by the pale cheeks and frail bent form of the invalid girl.
He induced his sister to call at the cottage, and they took the poor
suffering creature under their care. It was not unnatural that the young
secretary should also be enlisted in this kindly service. First she was
sent to the cottage with delicacies to tempt the appetite of the sick
girl; and then she began to go there of her own accord. During one of her
visits, the mother happened to say:

"You see, miss, what she wants is fresh air. But how's she to get it? She
can't walk only a few yards at a time; and even a mild winter's not the
time for sitting out."

The woman spoke without any special design; but her words suggested to
the mind of Miss Owen a happy thought. The young secretary was so firmly
established, by this time, in the regard of her employer that she was able
to approach him with the least degree of reserve. So she spoke out her
thought to him with the frankness of a favourite daughter. An actual