land."

"Would it not be better to let the place go out of cultivation, rather
than risk so much money?" she answered.

"Go out of cultivation! Nonsense, Ida, how can you talk like that? Why
that strong land would be ruined for a generation to come."

"Perhaps it would, but surely it would be better that the land should
be ruined than that we should be. Father, dear," she said appealingly,
laying one hand upon his shoulder, "do be frank with me, and tell me
what our position really is. I see you wearing yourself out about
business from day to day, and I know that there is never any money for
anything, scarcely enough to keep the house going; and yet you will
not tell me what we really owe--and I think I have a right to know."

The Squire turned impatiently. "Girls have no head for these things,"
he said, "so what is the use of talking about it?"

"But I am not a girl; I am a woman of six-and-twenty; and putting
other things aside, I am almost as much interested in your affairs as
you are yourself," she said with determination. "I cannot bear this
sort of thing any longer. I see that abominable man, Mr. Quest,
continually hovering about here like a bird of ill-omen, and I cannot
bear it; and I tell you what it is, father, if you don't tell me the
whole truth at once I shall cry," and she looked as though she meant
it.

Now the old Squire was no more impervious to a woman's tears than any
other man, and of all Ida's moods, and they were many, he most greatly