"So should I be, Maureen," said I. "I remember how he carried me round
the stables and to the kennels on his shoulder, and how he brought me in
to see Bridget Kinsella, the huntsman's wife, and she gave me bread and
brown sugar with cream over it. And when we were coming back it was
cold, and Uncle Luke carried me inside his coat."

"Aye," said Maureen, "he was ever softhearted. A bit wild, but not more
so than became his station. And if Miss Champion had been kinder with
him the trouble need never have happened."

I had often noticed a curious hostility in Maureen towards Miss
Champion, and had wondered at it, since she was so devoted to us all.

"She tell the story, indeed!" she went on with bitterness. "If she tells
it she'd better keep back nothing. Why did she send him to get
consolation from other ladies? He was always true-hearted from a child.
And if Miss Cardew had a fancy for him, who should blame her?"

Now, I had heard dimly of Miss Cardew who was an heiress, and of how Sir
Jasper Tuite had tried to abduct her, but somehow I had never heard the
whole of the story. People had dropped talking about it as soon as they
had discovered my presence. And I had had no idea at all that it had to
do with Uncle Luke.




CHAPTER VI

ONE SIDE OF A STORY