Part 61 (2/2)

We rode up to the porch just outside the verandah where George's father had planted the creeping roses; big clusters of bloom they used to have on 'em when I was a boy He showed 'em to me, I remember, and said what fine climbers they were Now they were all over the porch, and the verandah, and the roof of the cottage, all ales But Mrs

Storefield wouldn't have 'em cut because her old man had planted 'em

She came out to see us

'Well, Ailie, child,' says she, 'co in, don't sit there on your horse Who's this you've got with you? Oh! it's you, dick, is it? My eyes ain't as good as they were Well, co road, and worse 'll co to be the one to hunt you I re chap, as bold as a lion, and no one drearow up to be the wild chap you are Gracey's inside, I think She's as big a fool about ye as ever'

I very near broke down at this I could stand hard usage, and send back as good as I got; but this good old wo ofwell and respectably--when she talked toa fool ofaway in the little parlour, where there always used to be a nosegay when I was a boy, and it was that clean and neat I was afraid to go into it, and never easy till I got out again

There she sat as sober-looking and steady as if she'd been there for five years, andof anybody coed all of a sudden, and she jumped up and dropped her work on the floor

'Why, whatever brings you here, dick?' she said 'Don't you know it's terribly dangerous? Sir Ferdinand is always about here now He stayed at George's new house last night Wasn't he at Rocky Flat to-day?'

'Yes, but he won't be back for a week He told Aileen here he wouldn't'

Here I looked at the on quite a flirtation with Sir Ferdinand,'

says Gracey 'I don't knohat so'

'Doesn't he talk to any one when he comes here, or make himself pleasant?' I said 'Perhaps there's ame'

'Perhaps there is,' says Gracey; 'but he thinks, I believe, that he can get sos on, and where you plant; and we think we're quite as clever as he is, anduseful too So that's how theto be jealous?'

'Not a bit in the world,' I said, 'even if I had the right I'll back you two, as siainst any inspector of police froan to talk about other things, and I told Gracey all about our plans and intentions She listened very quiet and steady to it all, and then she said she thought soo whenever I sent for her to come, no matter where

'What I've said to you, dick, I've said for good and all It may be in a month or two, or it may be years and years But whenever the ti peaceably and happily, youmy word if I'ether, and Aileen and Ion dusk e started They wanted us to stop, but I daren't do it It was none too safe as it was, and it didn't do to throw a chance away Besides, I didn't want to be seen hanging about George's place There was nobody likely to know about Aileen andhalf-an-hour; but if it caht have ears and eyes open At ho, and be off like a shot at the first whisper of danger

So off ent We didn't ride very fast back It was ether side by side It ht be ain Perhaps never!

Who was to know? In the risks of a life like ain upon the sister that would have given her life for h the forest-oak branches, or hear the little creek ripple over the slate bar as it did to-night

Chapter 48

We rode along the old track very quiet, talking about old tihts So seemed to put it into my head to watch every turn in the track--every tree and bush by the roadside--every sound in the air--every star in the sky

Aileen rode along at last with her head drooped down as if she hadn't the heart to hold it up How hard it must have seemed to her to think she didn't dare even to ride with her own brother in the light of day without starting at every bush that stirred--at every footstep, horse or man, that fell on her ear!

There wasn't a breath of air that night Not a leaf stirred--not a bough h A 'possuht-owl cry out, but there wasn't any other sound, except the ripple of the creek over the stones, that got louder and clearer as we got nearer Rocky Flat There was nothing like a cloud in the sky even It wasn't an over light night, but the stars shone out like so many fireballs, and it was that silent any one could al in the house we left, though it was miles away

'I so up her head, 'if I had been a s you and Jim have, or whether I should have lived honestly and worked steadily like George over there I think I should have done so, I really do; that nothing would have tempted s I don't think it is in my nature somehow'

'I don't say as you would, Ailie,' I put in; 'but there's ht of when you coht up in the bush It's different with girls--though I've known so handy a the clearskins too'