me yesterday about her little the quarter is just due what do you allow her a certainly my dear or rather i pay her little as before how surprised you look mary i why i m not like that old colonel of other people s views when they advance them that woman helped me to save your life in a very great danger and for many years she has been as careful as a mother and we are not so to say at drawn about by a perilous secret walter why i only demand a little prudence and patience both from you and from her now tell me is there proper accommodation for you in mr s house oh yes papa it is a farm house now but it was a grand place there s a beautiful spare room with an well then you secure that and write to day to have a blazing fire and the bed properly as well as the sheets and you shall go to morrow in the four wheel and you can take her her little in a letter this sudden kindness and provision for her health and happiness filled mary s heart to overflowing and her gratitude forth upon mr s neck the old fox absorbed it and took the opportunity to say of course it is understood that matters are to go no further between you and walter oh i don t mean that you re to make him unhappy or drive him to despair only insist upon his being patient like yourself everything comes sooner or later to those that can wait oh papa cried mary you ve said more to comfort me than mrs or anybody can but i feel the change will do me good i am oh so grateful � mary wrote her letter and went to mrs next day after the usual embraces she gave mrs the letter and was duly in the state bedroom she wrote to to say where she was and that was her way of letting walter know walter himself arrived at hall next day worn anxious and and was shown at once to his father s bedside the colonel gave him a wasted hand and said dear boy i thought you d come we ve had our last quarrel walter walter burst into tears over his father s hand and nothing was said between them about their temporary the first thing walter did was to get two professional nurses from and secure his father constant attention night and day and above all nourishment at all hours of the night when the patient would take it on the afternoon after his arrival the colonel fell into a sound sleep then walter ordered his horse and in less than an hour was at mrs s place chapter xi the knot cut � another tied the farm house the occupied had been a family mansion of great antiquity with a moat around it it was held during the civil war by a stout who armed and it after a fashion with his own servants this had a different effect to what he intended it drew the attention of one of s and he a party with cannon and to reduce the place whilst he marched on to join in of more importance the of summoned the place the to show his respect for their authority made his kitchen a defiance from an upper window from which she bolted with great rapidity as soon as she had thus represented the of the establishment and when next seen it was in the cellar in between two barrels of beer the men went at it hammer and and in twenty four hours a good many cannon balls traversed the building a great many stuck in the walls like in a christmas the doors were blown in with and the principal with a few wounded were carried off to himself whilst the house itself was fired and blazed away merrily threatened the gentleman with death for defending an place by a perilous secret i didn t know it was said the gentleman how could i till i had tried you had the fate of fortified places to instruct you said and he promised faithfully to hang him on his own ruins the gentleman turned pale and his lips quivered but he said well mr i ve fought for my royal master according to my lights and i can die for him you shall sir said mr about next morning mr who had often a cool fit after a hot one and was a very big man take him altogether gave a different order the fool thought he was doing his duty turn him loose the fool in question was so proud of his battered house that he left it standing there bullets and all and built him a house elsewhere king charles the second had not landed a month before he made him a and one tenant after another occupied a portion of the old mansion two state rooms were and furnished with the relics of the entire mansion and these two rooms the present s occupied at rare intervals when he was the large properties connected with the s estate mary now occupied these two rooms connected by folding doors and she sat pensive in the window of her bedroom young ladies cling to their especially when they are pretty and airy suddenly she heard a and of a horse s up at the side of the house she darted from the window and stood panting in the middle of the room the next minute mrs entered the sitting room all in a flutter and beckoned her mary flew to her he is here i thought he would be will you meet him down stairs no here mrs rapidly closed the folding doors and went out saying try and calm yourself miss mary miss mary tried to obey her 