hat poor
girl."

"Did I, my lord? I didn't mean it."

"You see he's Bernard Dale's father, and the question is, whether
Bernard shouldn't punish the fellow for what he has done. Somebody
ought to do it. It isn't right that he should escape. Somebody ought
to let Mr Crosbie know what a scoundrel he has made himself."

"I'd do it to-morrow, only I'm afraid--"

"No, no, no," said the earl; "you are not the right person at all.
What have you got to do with it? You've merely known them as family
friends, but that's not enough."

"No, I suppose not," said Eames, sadly.

"Perhaps it's best as it is," said the earl. "I don't know that any
good would be got by knocking him over the head. And if we are to be
Christians, I suppose we ought to be Christians."

"What sort of a Christian has he been?"

"That's true enough; and if I was Bernard, I should be very apt to
forget my Bible lessons about meekness."

"Do you know, my lord, I should think it the most Christian thing in
the world to pitch into him; I should, indeed. There are some things
for which a man ought to be beaten black and blue."

"So that he shouldn't do them again?"

"Exactly. You might say it isn't Christian to hang a man."

"I'd always hang a murderer. It wasn't right to hang men for stealing
sheep."

"Much better hang such a fellow as Crosbie," said Eames.

"Well, I believe so. If any fellow wanted now to curry favour with
the young lady, what an opportunity he'd have."

Johnny remained silent for a moment or two before he answered. "I'm
not so sure of that," he said; mournfully, as though grieving at the
thought that there was no chance of currying favour with Lily by
thrashing her late lover.

"I don't pretend to know much about girls," said Lord De Guest; "but
I should think it would be so. I should fancy that nothing would
please her so much as hearing that he had caught it, and that all the
world knew that he'd caught it." The earl had declared that he didn't
know much about girls, and in so saving, he was no doubt right.

"If I thought so," said Eames, "I'd find him out to-morrow."

"Why so? what difference does it make to you?" Then there was another
pause, during which Johnny looked very sheepish.

"You don't mean to say that you're in love with Miss Lily Dale?"

"I don't know much about being in love with her," said Johnny,
turning very red as he spoke. And then he made up his mind, in a wild
sort of way, to tell all the truth t