—to kiss and make it up again; and—with
the natural curiosity of women—to ask another
question. This time, she only wanted me to
tell her what was the matter with our second
housemaid, Rosanna Spearman.

After leaving Mr. Franklin and me at the
Shivering Sand, Rosanna, it appeared, had
returned to the house in a very unaccountable
state of mind. She had turned (if Penelope was
to be believed) all the colours of the rainbow. She
had been merry without reason, and sad without
reason. In one breath she had asked hundreds
of questions about Mr. Franklin Blake; and
in another breath she had been angry with
Penelope for presuming to suppose that a
strange gentleman could possess any interest
for her. She had been surprised, smiling, and
scribbling Mr. Franklin's name inside her work-
box. She had been surprised again, crying,
and looking at her deformed shoulder in the
glass. Had she and Mr. Franklin known
anything of each other before to-day? Quite
impossible! Had they heard anything of each
other? Impossible again! I could speak to
Mr. Franklin's astonishment as genuine, when
he saw how the girl stared at him. Penelope
could speak to the girl's inquisitiveness as
genuine, when she asked questions about Mr.
Franklin. The conference between us,
conducted in this way, was tiresome enough, until
my daughter suddenly ended it by bursting out
with what I thought the most monstrous
supposition I had ever heard in my life.

"Father!" says Penelope, quite seriously,
"there's only one explanation of it. Rosanna
has fallen in love with Mr. Franklin Blake at
first sight!"

You have heard of beautiful young ladies
falling in love at first sight, and have thought
it natural enough. But a housemaid out of a
Reformatory, with a plain face and a deformed
shoulder, falling in love, at first sight, with a
gentleman who comes on a visit to her
mistress's house, match me that, in the way of an
absurdity, out of any story-book in Christendom,
if you can! I laughed till the tears rolled
down my cheeks. Penelope resented my merriment
in rather a strange way. " I never knew
you cruel before, father," she said, very gently,
and went out.

My girl's words fell on me like a splash of
cold water. I was savage with myself, for
feeling uneasy in myself the moment she had
spoken them—but so it was. We will change
the subject, if you please. I am sorry I drifted
into writing about it, and not without reason,
as you will see when we have gone on together
a little longer.

The evening came, and the dressing-bell for
dinner rang, before Mr. Franklin returned from
Frizinghall. I took his hot water up to his
room myself, expecting to hear, after this
extraordinary delay, that something had happened.
To my great disappointment (and no doubt to
yours also), nothing had happened. He had
not met with the Indians, either going or
returning. He had deposited the Moonstone in
the bank—describing it merely as a valuable of
great price—and he had got the receipt for it
safe in his pocket. I went down-stairs, feeling
that this was rather a flat ending, after all
our excitement about the Diamond earlier in
the day.

How the meeting between Mr. Franklin and
his aunt and cousin went off is more than I can
tell you.

I would have given something to have waited
at table that day. But, in my position in the
household, waiting at dinner (except on high
family festivals) was letting down my dignity in
the eyes of the other servants—a thing which
my lady considered me quite prone enough to
do already, without seeking occasions for it.
The news brought to me from the upper regions,
that evening, came from Penelope and the footman.
Penelope mentioned that she had never
known Miss Rachel so particular about the
dressing of her hair, and had never seen her
look so bright and pretty as she did when she
went down to meet Mr. Franklin in the drawing-
room. The footman's report was, that the
preservation of a respectful composure in the
presence of his betters, and the waiting on Mr.
Franklin Blake at dinner, were two of the hardest
things to reconcile with each other that had
ever tried his training in service. Later in the
evening, we heard them singing and playing
duets, Mr. Franklin piping high, Miss Rachel
piping higher, and my lady, on the piano, following
them, as it were, over hedge and ditch,
and seeing them safe through it in a manner
most wonderful and pleasant to hear through
the open windows, on the terrace at night.
Later still, I went to Mr. Franklin in the
smoking-room, with the soda-water and brandy,
and found that Miss Rachel had put the
Diamond clean out of his head. "She's the most
charming girl I have seen since I came back to
England!" was all I could extract from him,
when I endeavoured to lead the conversation
to more serious things.

Towards midnight, I went round the house
to lock up, accompanied by my second in
command (Samuel, the footman), as usual. When
all doors were made fast, except the side-door
that opened on the terrace, I sent Samuel to
bed, and stepped out for a breath of fresh air
before I too went to bed in my turn.

The night was still and close, and the moon
was at the full in the heavens. It was so silent
out of doors, that I heard from time to time,
very faint and low, the fall of the sea, as the
ground-swell heaved it in on the sand-bank near
the mouth of our little bay. As the house stood,
the terrace side was the dark side; but the
broad moonlight showed fair on the gravel walk
that ran along the next side to the terrace.
Looking this way, after looking up at the sky,
I saw the shadow of a person in the moonlight
thrown forward from behind the corner of the
house.

Being old and sly, I forbore to call out; but,
being also, unfortunately, old and heavy, my