t from him. You, I'm sure, will try to prevent
this."

He promised that her dying injunction, so far as he could arrange it,
would be strictly observed, and then he went out into the mystic night.

They did not commune together again, for the Omnipotent had willed that
she should pass through the valley before the long beams of light had
been drawn from the dawn. The little colony was cast into gloom, and
neither the chilly, puritanic doctrine of the Lord of the Manor, nor
the mechanical piety of his adjutant, the rector, could stay the anger
that permeated even the dullest of the inhabitants, who believed that a
crime had been committed in the name of righteousness. The indignation
of the female portion of the Burnside family was well subdued, not
because of any cantish false delicacy, but in order that their own lads
might not be encouraged to say or do anything rash. They left the
father to communicate the news of Mary Routledge's illness to them. He
had prayed for her on the first night they were at home; this gave them
the first intimation of the tragedy, but the ghastly character of it
was learnt from outside, and they never either forgave or forgot the
wicked perpetrators.

The hearts of the two sailors were sorely touched by the tale of
suffering and treatment of the poor girl whom they were accustomed to
regard in the light of a sister when they were boys at school, and
though a few years of rough sea life had rubbed the finer edges off
their early training, they still retained a strong affection for the
girls who were their favourites, and as she was one of them, their
affection and their grief for her was never concealed. The fulness of
their pleasures had been marred by this great affliction, but as they
would have made any sacrifice in order that their sympathy might be
known to her, they steadfastly observed an attitude of conduct that
well-nigh approached piety; and after she had been "put away" and their
father told them of her last dying message, they resolved that if
spared to reach a position, and her boy was alive, and those who had
charge of him were agreeable that he should become a sailor, either one
or the other would undertake his training. Meanwhile the child was left
as a legacy to the grandfather, but incredible though it may appear, he
was not allowed to bring it to the estate during the sanctified
lifetime of Mr Humbert.

The young men had reached the limit of their period ashore; it wa