"Yes--your Mr. Lee Lyon." Grace was warming again. "He's one of your
men that cast shadows wherever they go. I felt it the moment his
foot crossed our threshold--didn't you?"

Grace gave thought and words to what, with Mrs. Markland, had only
been a vague impression. She had felt the shadow of his presence
without really perceiving from whence the shadow came. Pausing only
a moment for an answer to her query, Grace went on:--

"Mr. Lyon is at the bottom of all this, take my word for it; and if
he doesn't get Edward into trouble before he's done with him, my
name's not Grace Markland."

"Trouble! What do you mean, Grace?" Another shade of anxiety flitted
over the countenance of Mrs. Markland.

"Don't you suppose that Edward's going to town every day has
something to do with this Mr. Lyon?"

"Mr. Lyon went South nearly two weeks ago," was answered.

"That doesn't signify. He's a schemer and an adventurer--I could see
it in every lineament of his face--and, there's not a shadow of
doubt in my mind, has got Edward interested in some of his doings.
Why, isn't it as plain as daylight? Were not he and Edward
all-absorbed about something while he was here? Didn't he remain a
week when he had to be urged, at first, to stay a single day? And
hasn't Edward been a different man since he left, from what he was
before he came?"