As we drew near the Hall, her hand began to
tremble on my arm, and her replies grew vague
and absent; at last she stopped short, in a
tremor of distress.

"I am bitterly ashamed of myself, Mr.
Humphrey," she said; "but I am terrified at going
into your grand house, among your proud
guests. That is the truth. The poor and
unhappy should keep away from the rich and gay.
Oh, I wish I could go home again!"

She burst into passionate tears. Now in
her distress I saw how young she was—a mere
untutored girl. Reserve had before made her
more womanly than her years.

"My dear child," I said, "—pardon me—I
am so much older than you. The pride is all
on your side. I do not want to preach you a
sermon, but poverty is not a crime; it is not
even the worst of misfortunes."

"It is, it is," she interrupted, vehemently.
"It is the cruelest of all, the most utterly
killing and crushing. To escape from it, I
would——"

"Marry a prince, or turn popular authoress?"
I said, smiling.

"Or rob a poor-box," she said, with a curious
little grimness of tone. "The two first alternatives
being out of my power."

O Peg, Peg! How those words afterwards
rose up and bore witness against you! Was
all this an artful little scene to engage a
rich man's interest? Tears, moonlight, a sweet
face, and a passionate voice! Before a
fortnight, a dozen of my lady friends would have
been ready to swear to your plotting. Yet I do
not see how you could have made the carriage
break down, Peg. Lucretia's drop of poison
lurked in my ear, though I thought I had
washed it out a dozen times.

After this little burst, she dried her eyes, like
a child who has had its passion out; and we
went on as before. Of course it was only
to give her time to calm herself that I chose
the longest way to the Hall; for I was very
much on my guard.

"The carriage is here already!" I exclaimed,
seeing, as I thought, the identical equipage we
had left behind us standing at the hall-door.
But no, here were servants running about,
dragging down luggage, and carrying in
wrappings, while a black man was gesticulating in
the portico, and giving orders which nobody
seemed to understand. What was this? Some
wonderful arrival, unexpected as Cinderella's at
the prince's ball? On the stairs half a dozen
men were staggering under the weight of a
large iron coffer, or safe, while at the top of the
first flight stood a curious figure, eagerly watching
their operations. This figure was a thin
yellow-faced little man, wrapped in a fur-lined
gown of vivid eastern colouring. Ill health
and discontent were in every line of his face,
and his eyes were fixed with anxious greediness
on the ascending box. The housekeeper was
below in the hall, wringing her hands because
there was no room prepared for "masther's
uncle." From this I knew who my visitor was:
Giles Humphrey, my father's only brother, who
had gone to India when a boy, and had scarcely
been heard of since.

I pressed past the burdened carriers on the
staircase, and presented myself to my strange
relative. He had at the moment no thought
to bestow on me, and merely replied to my
words of welcome by beseeching me to show
him the way to the securest chamber in my
house, so that he might direct the staggering
men to deposit their load there.

I took him to my own room. This was a
large apartment at the end of a long corridor,
lined with the doors of other chambers. It was
reached by ascending three broad steps, and a
good-sized dressing-room opened off it. You
may not remember them, Tom, for those rooms
have fallen into disuse. Into the furthest corner
of the dressing-room my uncle's coffer was
carried, and then Giles Humphrey himself began
examining the thickness of the shutters and the
weight of the bars that held them fastened, the
stoutness of the panelling of the doors, the
trustworthiness of the locks, and even the
ward of the keys. I had thought the shutters
good, but they displeased him. On his opening
one a little to glance suspiciously out
on the white moon and the snow, a shock-
headed bush of ivy bobbed suddenly against
the pane, and almost scared his whimsical
senses away. He immediately had the window
fastened up, and sent off a messenger
post-haste for the smith who had mended our
carriage to make him a wonderful iron shutter-
bar, twice as large and as weighty as those
which had for generations sufficed to guard the
lives and properties in Ballyhuckamore Hall.
He then ordered a second set of curtains to be
put up within the already comfortable and
carefully-drawn hangings, sand-bags to be laid
down at every spot where there was a
possibility of crevice in the woodwork, at the same
time heaping fuel on the already blazing fire,
till the hearth-place began to glow like a furnace.
Only then did he think proper to notice me,
as he sat in my arm-chair, cowering towards
the fire, and warming his skinny fingers at the
flames. He had arrived in England only a few
days before, and not finding me at home, had
followed me here. I joked him about his
wonderful strong-box.

"Hist! nephew," he said, with a look of
alarm, which the dancing firelight extravagantly
heightened on his parchment face, "it holds
money, riches, gold, jewels! You don't think I
sold my youth and health for nothing, boy, out
there? You don't think I sold my youth and
health for nothing? Eh?"

"But why bring it here to torment you with
anxiety? Why not leave it safe in a bank in
London?"

"Leave it?" staring at me as if I were a
burglar; "part with what I earned so hard?
Make a present of my savings to Messrs. So-and-
So? Eh, nephew, what a silly schoolboy you
are still! By-and-by you will know the world,
my lad."