when heartsick from a long and fruitless search for one who would have
been nearer and dearer to him. Nor had he ever taken to the lad
personally. The squire felt that there was not the ring of true metal
in him. The careless way in which he spoke of his parents showed a want
of heart; and although his uncle was ignorant how much the boy made
himself disliked in the household, he was conscious, himself, of a
certain antipathy for him, which led him to see as little of him as
possible.

The two years, for which the sergeant had placed his grandchild with
Mrs. Walsham, came to an end. That he did not intend to continue the
arrangement, she judged from something he said on the occasion of his
last visit, two months before the time was up, but he gave no hint as
to what he intended to do with her.

In those weeks Mrs. Walsham frequently thought the matter over. That
the sergeant had plans for the child she could hardly doubt. The child
herself had told her that she knew of no other relations than her
grandfather, and yet he could hardly intend to take her about with him,
after placing her for two years in a comfortable home. She was but
seven years old now--far too young to go out into a place as servant
girl in a farm house. She doubted not that the sergeant had expended
the whole of his savings, and she thought him foolish in not having
kept her with him for some little time longer, or, if he could not do
that, he might have placed her with some honest people, who would have
kept her for the sum he had paid until she was old enough to take a
place as a nurse girl.

And yet, while she argued thus, Mrs. Walsham felt that the old showman
had not acted without weighing the whole matter. There must be