A week after his latest recorded ride with Grace, John Lee visited Siward\'s Cross, to find his grandmother in a black and savage temper. Not only had she lost her money, but all chance of making more, because the Americans now firmly believed that Lovey Lee was the traitress, since she alone, beside the Seven, knew of their project and the time determined for it. This woman was quite innocent; yet now, indeed, her sole regret centred in the fact that she had not betrayed them. But an unknown spy had taken the Government\'s money, and was richer by twenty guineas, while Lovey went poorer every way. How to regain the confidence of the prisoners was the problem before her, and she had not solved it on a day when John Lee came to her cabin. With him he brought some of his wages, and the silver served to comfort Mrs. Lee. She was half tempted to tell him her grievance, but natural caution arrested her. She held her peace concerning her private affairs; then, by a sudden question, unconsciously led him into his.

"How do Malherb get on with Norcot? You can tell him from me that thicky chap be built to be his master."

"\'Tis the daughter he wants to master, not Mr. Malherb. She\'s promised to him. \'Tis all cut and dried in every mind but Miss Grace\'s."

"They won\'t ax her."

"To think of such a maiden being flung to a man she hates!"

"Stuff! She\'ll come round same as her betters afore her. He\'ll make her like him. Ban\'t he made o\' money? Us all know that he be."

"She\'s wept tears against him a thousand times. She\'s a Malherb too, with all her father\'s strength of will and fifty times his sense. She won\'t wed against her heart for any man."

"What do you know about her heart, Jack Lee? You\'ll be wise not to open your mouth so wide; else you\'m like to lose your job."

"I\'m not blind to hideous injustice."

"Nor me neither. The man who would rob the poor would sell his darter to the rich. His damn stone walls stretch out all around yon valleys now, an\' my cows get the fat of the pasture no more. I wish I could fret the flesh off his bones for it."

"Mr. Malherb has got his troubles and so much the more he wants to have his daughter off his hands and be free of her. The madness of the man! I learned from Kekewich, who is a very good friend to me, that he has already asked Norcot for his first-born to make him master of Fox Tor in the time to come. He looks that far ahead."

"The fool!"

"It shan\'t be while I live and can stand between her and the ruin of all her young life. I\'m a man now—I——"

"Since when did you larn to talk so fine? An\' who taught \'e?"

"Miss Malherb has been pleased to polish my speech. We—we are very good friends, thank God."

Lovey reflected over this curious remark. Then the matter in her mind was suddenly echoed upon his tongue and he put the familiar question.

"Grandmother, when are you going to tell me my father\'s name? I weary of asking you."

"You\'m travelling fast," she answered; "long rides, an\' mended speech, an\' what else? She finds you\'re fair to see—\'tis natural. Yet \'twill dash this crack-brained foolery when you know what you crave to know. For years I\'ve kept that secret, hoping there was money hanging to it. But I don\'t see none."

"\'Tis your duty to tell me now that I am a man."

"As to that— Do she want to know, or do you?"

"We both—at least——"

She caught him up.

"Ho-ho! An\' what be you to her that she should care a rush who your faither was?"

"Well—a secret understanding——"

"Unknown to her faither?"

"\'Tis so, but for God\'s sake, grandmother——"

"Say it out, then, or I\'ll peach. Come now——"

"Will you swear before heaven to tell nobody—not a breath to any living soul?"

"I\'ll swear hard and fast—may my liver rot if I whimper it," said Lovey, already speculating what the lad\'s confession might be worth to Maurice Malherb.

"And you\'ll tell me my father\'s name?"

"As to that, yes. We\'m prone to hunger after more truth than\'s pleasant to taste. An\' what you want to know won\'t make you more light-hearted, nor yet that maiden, if she\'s been so daft as to turn her eyes to you. Your mother was my daughter Jane. Your faither was Norrington Malherb, the younger brother of Maurice Malherb, as died long since. So you stand cousin, wrong side the blanket, to that girl."

She watched his face grow pale............