So the two more or less broken men won and lost to each other with unwavering equanimity and became as intimate as was possible considering that the parson refused all information as to the locality of the prison and the names of his friend's captors. Before many days were over, the lieutenant's loneliness set him bragging about the wild life he had lived and the beautiful wife, who treated him like a schoolboy in need of a birching. He declared she was the only woman in the world he couldn't understand and that, though she was a damned iceberg to him, she kept up a school-miss's correspondence with a God-forsaken parson and, by Gad, there were times when he wondered if it was something more than a correspondence.

Although Mr. Finnigan quickly took the poor man's measure and had reason for thinking there was some mystery about his name and present status, the lieutenant was careful to disclose nothing of importance. Dr. Hoblyn perhaps could have named his patient's identity but the crafty physician had no desire for any intimacy beyond the professional and told only one person of a certain letter the lieutenant entrusted to his hands for posting and which he gave to Captain Kellinack to deal with as he pleased. The letter was posted in Alderney and thus gave no clue to its writer's place of detention.

G

CHAPTER XVI

NEWS OF THE MAJOR

ENEFER'S waywardness was balm to Mr. Trevenna's sore and lonely heart. More and more would the child seek his companionship and, without wavering in her allegiance to Aunt Temperance, she adopted him quite as finally. To play the truant was necessary to this child, born with no birthright of home; and the sadness that now was gripping Mr. Trevenna in no way spoiled his happy care of her, nor shook her adoration. He claimed that she had missed the learning of speech because "the illumination of nonsense understood only by mothers and lovers1" had been denied her. "How shall we learn to utter what is not understood?" he asks Lady Evangeline. "There be Italian greyhounds of so refined a breeding that they refuse their food without their mistress make play with every mouthful; and doubtless this little love-child is behind others in picking up the crumbs of knowledge only because she discovers no hunger for them till they are made sacramental, id est outward and visible signs of the mother-love denied her."

Charity Hornbuckle, having her own troubles to bear, to wit, the uncertainty of her lover's whereabouts and the constant fear of his arrest, also found solace in the child's curious ways and passionate affection. The girl had by this time found her own home intolerable, notwithstanding her devotion to her young brothers and 1 Vide Appendix N.

sisters. For Hoblyn gave her no peace and would take no refusal, though she had small compunction in telling him she'd rather put on a winding sheet than a wedding gown for a wolf like him. But her father was now an even worse terror to her. "'Tis argy, argy, argy," she told her aunt, "till you'd a' thoft the Bible was wrote only to make the maids lay down for fathers an' wuss to tramp on. But 'tedn' me as'll let un !' This declaration was followed by such a fit of weeping that Martha had taken her into her own bed for that night and had in the morning given her brother such a scolding that he refused to let Cherry come home again until she should ask forgiveness.

So for the time being, Cherry found peace in St. Neot's cottage and plenty of work to do, for in the winter months the spinning wheels were always at work. But it was Genny who took most of her time, and the girl's motherly heart found a key to the child's speech. With utmost patience, encouraged by rapid response, Genny began to talk in one-syllable words: and Cherry declared her conviction that the child had never spoken only because she never saw why she should. In the poorhouse, fear had repressed her. With Aunt Temperance all her desires were known and met beforehand, though in this family of huge men and women she had found no real companionship. Indeed, Martha confessed to Cherry-yet only in a whisper—that the cheeld must have first been drawed to Master Trevenna because 'tedn' no sense in gainsaying ithe du be such a teeny li'l un!"

About this time Mr. Trevenna wrote to Lady Evangeline of very important matters. The letter is undated, but in all probability it was written immediately after his strange experience when he found his people all digging their own graves for treasure.

"We have here a notable instance of the fact that authority to enforce the law vitiates the sense of true justice. Have I already told you how the smugglers

hold in durance a King's officer? By perjury, as they and I believe, he brought to the gallows Luke Kellinack's young brother-a truly noble lad. I must give no names. Lieutenant N. has lain dangerously ill, but is now, thanks to Doctor H.'s skill, recovering and must soon be liberated. I have had talk with this officer, who, I confess, affects me not. My Irish confrère has befriended him with more success, and the wretched gentleman, who is no longer young, appears anxious for reformation. He has, I imagine, lived in self-indulgence, and seems to think that his lineage relieves him of all obligations towards the less favoured. He vows the lad Kellinack, if he was not actually guilty, was one of the gang; and that, if he did exceed the facts in his evidence, it was in the King's service. Little he knows that these fisher-folk are the rocks of England-rather than those fashionable gentlemen who dispense her partial justice, dull-witted as the stoners of St. Stephen! But the lieutenant is less cruel than dull of wit, and I do believe he will depart from us repentant for his false swearing. He is very illiterate, and has, to judge from his conversation, more respect for dogs and horses than for the common people. Dr. Hoblyn's two dogs affect him greatly. During his most feverish times, he would lie and talk to them in his delirium, as if they were his own flesh and blood. Mr. Finnigan, whom I have earlier named to you as Squire Beckensawe's chaplain, will have it he has children and mistook these creatures for them! That you would pity him, dear my Lady, I am persuaded.

Lady Evangeline wondered in what sort of captivity this officer was suffering, that her friend and the dogs had access to him. She had read the latter passages more than once, when suddenly the officer stood vivid before her; the conviction seized her that he might be, nay, must be, her husband. Had she not heard him raving in his drink-delirium? and often addressing his spaniels as if they were his own sons? Every point

that Mr. Trevenna made, applied accurately to him. Perhaps to recover his lost honour Reginald had purchased a commission in a line regiment under an assumed name, and had, in his zeal for serving his King, fallen foul of essential justice. She could believe it easily. It was a clue to follow; was it mere coincidence or divine Providence that her husband was given touch with the Vicar of St. Neots ?

Consistently with her characteristic impulse to quick action, she urged herself to her knees. Against her unuttered hopes, her dreams of days that might be lastingly happier; against her hope that her beloved boys perhaps need neither follow in their father's footsteps nor learn to despise him; she forced herself to pray for his restoration to health and home. prayers left her weeping lest they be answered.

But her

Before the sleepless night was over she wrote to her school-friend, Lady Beckensawe, asking whether at last and in spite of her so many refusals of kindest invitations, she might visit her. She had long intended a visit to her uncle, the Archdeacon of Cornwall, and would break her return journey at Exeter for this purpose. The journey would take many days and the roads, she feared, would be very ill, but she had no cause to spare herself expense and had a fancy for this indulgence. She said she needed change, that the town was dull and yet full of restlessness in these odious days of wars and revolutions. But she gave no hint that her chief object in the visit would be to meet Mr. Finnigan, and get news from him of an unfortunate officer in the smugglers' custody. Nor did she let the hope quite formulate itself in her mind that possibly, even if but for a few minutes as an unknown worshipper with fisher-folk and owls, she would get sight of one, the light of whose face and the sound of whose voice would remain a bright solace in the sadder days yet to come.

A happy reply came and with one stipulation, namely that Lady Evangeline should bring her two boys