Part 16 (1/2)

”You were Roland Marleigh's friend?” gasped Gregory He was very white now, and there was a sheen of h sobered hih stood before him His knees were loosened, and he sank back into the chair from which he had but risen

”Aye, I was his friend!” assented Crispin ”Poor Roland! Heno issue and the fah passed to you?”

”He ory amended ”They were an ill-fated family”

”Ill-fated, indeed, an all accounts be true,” returned Crispin in a maudlin voice ”Poor Roland! Well, for old ti's chamber, Master Ashburn”

”You shall sleep where you list, sir,” answered Gregory, and they rose

”Do you look to honour us long at Castle Marleigh, Sir Crispin?” was Gregory's last question before separating froo hence to-morrow,” answered Crispin, unory, in accents of relief that belied hih's h's”

”The house that was Roland Marleigh's,” Crispin ho!

Life is precarious as the fall of a die at best an epheht you say the house that was Roland Marleigh's; presentlythe house that the Ashburns lived--aye, and died--in

Give you good night, Master Ashburn”

He staggered off, and stumbled up the broad staircase at the head of which a servant noaited, taper in hand, to conduct hiory followed hi, thickly uttered words had sounded like a prophecy in his ears

CHAPTER XIII THE METAMORPHOSIS OF KENNETH

When theout his proposal of the night before, and departing froh Nor, indeed, did he sohimself rather as one whose sojourn there was to be indefinite

Gregory offered no coh what he had done for Kenneth they were under a debt to Galliard, and whilst he was a fugitive froory to hasten his departure Moreover, Gregory recalled little or nothing of the words that had passed between theue memory that Crispin had said that he had once known Roland Marleigh

Kenneth was content that Galliard should lie idle, and not call upon hied himself to render when Crispin should demand it He marvelled, as the days wore on, that Galliard should appear to have forgotten that task of his, and that he should make no shi+ft to set about it For the rest, however, it troubled hih preoccupation did he find in Cynthia's daily increasing coldness Upon all the fine speeches that he made her she turned an idle ear, or if she replied at all it was but petulantly to interrupt thereat words and small deeds All that he did she found ill done, and told hiarments of sombre hue afforded her the first weapon of scorn ith to wound hi hypocrite; a Scripture-er, and every other contumelious epithet of like import that she should call to mind He heard her in amazement

”Is it for you, Cynthia,” he cried out in his surprise, ”the child of a God-fearing house, to mock the outward syhed, ”that is all outward sys and nose-twangings”

”Cynthia!” he exclaimed, in horror

”Go your ways, sir,” she answered, half in jest, half in earnest ”What need hath a true faith of outward symbols? It is a matter that lies between your God and yourself, and it is your heart He will look at, not your coat Why, then, without beco more acceptable in His eyes, shall you but render yourself unsightly in the eyes of er Frolance roam towards the avenue that split the park in twain Up this at that ait, Sir Crispin Galliard was approaching leisurely; he wore a claret-coloured doublet edged with silver lace, and a grey hat decked with a drooping red feather--which garether with the rest of his apparel, he had drawn froory Ashburn

His advent afforded Kenneth the retort he needed Pointing him out to Cynthia:

”Would you rather,” he cried hotly, ”have me such a man as that?”

”And, pray, why not?” she taunted him ”Leastways, you would then be a ate, a brawler be your conception of a man, I would in faith you did not account me one”