matters, was her reply. I ask you: to hear your opinion about the scrape
the bench have got into, is yours. Now, it's neither one nor the other;
and I tell you, Archibald, I'll hear what it is. I should like to know
what you and Barbara do with a secret between you."

Mr. Carlyle knew her and her resolute expression well, and he took his
course, to tell her the truth. She was, to borrow the words Barbara had
used to her brother with regard to him, true as steel. Confide to Miss
Carlyle a secret, and she was trustworthy and impervious as he could be;
but let her come to suspect that there was a secret which was being kept
from her, and she would set to work like a ferret, and never stop until
it was unearthed.

Mr. Carlyle bent forward and spoke in a whisper. "I will tell you, if
you wish, Cornelia, but it is not a pleasant thing to hear. Richard Hare
has returned."

Miss Carlyle looked perfectly aghast. "Richard Hare! Is he mad?"

"It is not a very sane proceeding. He wants money from his mother, and
Mrs. Hare sent Barbara to ask me to manage it for her. No wonder poor
Barbara was flurried and nervous, for there's danger on all sides."

"Is he at their house?"

"How could he be there and his father in it? He is in hiding two or
three miles off, disguised as a laborer, and will be at the grove
to-night to receive this money. I have invited the justices to get
Mr. Hare safe away from his own house. If he saw Richard, he would
undoubtedly give him up to justice, and--putting graver considerations