All this time Miss Baynard was waiting at Stanbrook for the news which seemed so long in coming.

As one slow day followed another without bringing the longed-for tidings her heart grew sick within her. Perhaps the boy had been spirited out of the country, and she should never set eyes on him again; perhaps something worse even than that had befallen him. Mr. Piljoy came over on business connected with the estate, but brought no comfort with him. Till some tidings of the missing heir should come to hand no steps whatever could be taken with reference to the settlement of the property. After his receipt of Nell\'s letter containing the news of the abduction he had communicated direct with the authorities in London, but, beyond a reply to the effect that the case was already in hand and having their best attention, he had heard nothing. He had more than one question to put to Miss Baynard having reference to Mr. Geoffrey Dare, to which she contented herself with replying that Dare had been her cousin\'s bosom friend, and was the missing boy\'s godfather, and had promised poor Dick to look after him as if he were his own son. What would have been Mr. Piljoy\'s horror and amazement had he been told that Mr. Geoffrey Dare and the notorious Captain Nightshade were one and the same person! Nell could not help laughing a little to herself as her imagination conjured up the picture.

But our heroine\'s state of soul-wearing suspense was not destined to last much longer.

On the evening of the second day after Mr. Piljoy\'s return home a letter was brought her which caused her to start with amazement the moment her eyes fell on it. The address was in the same writing as that of the packet in which her lost mask had been returned to her. For a space of some seconds she stood staring at it like one fascinated; then with fingers that shook a little she broke the seal and tore open the letter. Here is what she read: "Mr. Cope-Ellerslie presents his compliments to Miss Baynard, and has much happiness in informing her that news has reached him not only of the safety but of the whereabouts of her young relative, Master Evan Cortelyon.

"Should Miss Baynard think it worth her while to come as far as Rockmount, Mr. Ellerslie will be pleased to tell her all that has come to his knowledge in connection with the affair, in which case the bearer of this letter is instructed to act as her guide and escort on the journey."

She could hardly make out the last few lines for the happy tears which already dimmed her eyes, and so had to read them again.

Go to Rockmount! Of course she would. Had it been to the end of Europe she would have gone, and ten minutes later she was ready to start. Day was already drawing to dusk, and timorous-hearted Mrs. Budd would fain have persuaded her to put off her journey till morning. But timid counsels had never prevailed with Nell, and it was not in the least likely that they would in a case like the present.

She had at once sent word to have her mare saddled and brought round, and it was waiting for her, in charge of John Dyce, by the time she was ready. Nell was hardly surprised at finding that the man who had brought the letter, and who was waiting for an answer to it, was the one who on the occasion of her first sojourn at Rockmount had acted as her guide as far as the Whinbarrow road. Would he recognize in her the young spark whom he had then escorted? It seemed hardly likely that he would, and in any case, it did not matter greatly. It was far more probable that he would recognize her mare Peggy.

"I am going back with you to Rockmount," she said to him.

"All right, mum," he replied, with a tug at his forelock. "You couldn\'t have a finer evenin\' for a ride."

Neither man nor horse had lacked for refreshment while waiting. And so presently they set out, Miss Baynard leading the way by about a dozen yards. This lasted till they had gone some six or eight miles, and had reached a point where it became necessary to diverge from the great highway they had hitherto been traversing and take to one of the tortuous cross-country roads which branched off into the desolate region of fells and moors. Then the position of the two was reversed, and it was the man who led the way.

It was quite dark by the time they reached Rockmount, or as nearly so as it ever is on a clear, starlit autumnal night. As Miss Baynard drew rein in front of the house, her mind was busy with the incidents of that other night, now many months old, when one whom she had since learnt to love in secret with all the fervency of a first great passion had brought her to the door of Rockmount and had there left her. How full of incident for her those months had been! What a changed life, both inwardly and outwardly, had hers become between then and now!

Her guide, having dismounted, gave a resounding knock on the great oaken door and then helped Miss Baynard to alight. When that was done he led the horses away towards the back premises, and the same instant there was the sound of bolts and bars being unloosened one by one. So remote and lonely was the house that it was no wonder the inmates looked carefully to their fastenings.

Then the door was opened, disclosing the same sour-visaged old serving-man, carrying a lighted candle, whom Nell had seen on the first occasion.

"Be good enough to tell your master that Miss Baynard is here," she said.

Making an arch of one of his knotted hands, he peered at her for a moment or two from under it. Then he said: "The Master is expecting yo. Will yo be pleased to come in?"

And so for the second time, Nell crossed the threshold of Rockmount. The door having been shut behind her, the old fellow led the way across the hall, and so brought her presently to the same sparsely furnished room with which she was already so well acquainted. Then she was left alone.

As Nell looked round the room she could have fancied that only a few hours had gone by since she was last there. The candles were alight, a cheerful fire was burning in the grate; the heavy curtains of faded red moreen were closely drawn; nothing was changed. From moment to moment she looked to see Mr. Cope-Ellerslie enter.

Would he, when they met, treat her as a stranger, or as one whom he knew already? It was a question she had asked herself more than once while on her way to Rockmount. That he knew the pseudo Mr. Frank Nevill to be none other than Miss Baynard, of Stanbrook, he had himself furnished her with proof positive in the return of her mask; but did he know at the time he gave her a night\'s lodging who she was, or did he not discover it till afterwards? And, in either case, by what mysterious means had he made the discovery? She had not forgotten, nor was it likely she should forget, that in the chamber assigned her at Rockmount she had found a certain feminine garment, but whether placed there by accident or design she had no means whatever of knowing. If by design, then must Mr. Ellerslie from the first have penetrated the secret of her sex. It was a thought which, even after all this time, caused the blood to tingle in her veins.

But these questions, personal to herself, perplexing though they were, did not cause her for more than a minute or two at a time to lose sight of the main object which had brought her to Rockmount, while wholly at a loss to imagine how it had come to pass that the first news of the lost child should have reached her through Mr. Ellerslie, and neither through Bow Street nor Geoffrey Dare. Not that it mattered greatly, so long as news of him had come to hand. She was all impatience to hear what Mr. Ellerslie had to tell her.

She could not help starting when the door opened, thinking to see him; but it was Mrs. Dobson, the housekeeper, who now came in. Nell had by no means forgotten Mrs. Dobson, and she scrutinized her a little anxiously. Would the housekeeper recognize her? Would there be anything in her manner to betray a knowledge of their having ever met before?

Mrs. Dobson, having shut the door, came forward a little way, crossed her hands in front of her, and made Miss Baynard a respectful curtsey. Then their eyes met, and Nell read nothing in those of the other which she might not have read in the eyes of any stranger. Undisguised admiration they betrayed of a surety, but to that our young lady was so used that she thought nothing of it.

"Madam," began the housekeeper, with the tone and manner of a well-bred dependent, "my master desires me to say that in another room there is a very charming little picture, a view of which he feels sure would please you vastly. If you will be good enough to accompany me I will conduct you to it."

Miss Baynard stared at the housekeeper with wide-set eyes. "A picture!" she said. "Surely Mr. Ellerslie has not asked me to Rockmount merely to show me a picture!"

"That is more than I can say, miss. My business is simply to repeat my master\'s message. But I feel quite sure that if you knew what the picture is, you would never forgive yourself for having refused to see it. Do come, miss," she added next moment, seeing that Miss Baynard still hesitated.

"Very well, I will go with you," said Nell.

Mrs. Dobson led the way through the gloomy old house to a bedroom on the first floor, but not the one occupied by Miss Baynard on the occasion of her first visit to Rockmount, although differing very little from it in its furniture and appointments, except in one particular. In the middle of the floor stood a couch, to which Nell\'s eyes travelled instinctively the moment she entered the room. It had been made up temporarily with pillows and coverlets, so as to form a child\'s bed. A solitary wax candle was alight on the chimney-piece.

A low, inarticulate cry broke from Nell. Brushing past the housekeeper, she went swiftly forward and bent over the couch. The truth had............