"Are you beginning to wish, Rhoda," she said, "that I had not brought
you to this strange place, among these wild people?"

The maid was a quiet amiable girl, evidently in delicate health. She
smiled faintly. "I was thinking, Miss, of another nobleman besides the
one Mrs. Lewson mentioned just now, who seems to have led a reckless
life. It was printed in a newspaper that I read before we left London."

"Was his name mentioned?" Iris asked.

"No, Miss; I suppose they were afraid of giving offence. He tried so
many strange ways of getting a living--it was almost like reading a
story-book."

The suppression of the name suggested a suspicion from which Iris
recoiled. Was it possible that her maid could be ignorantly alluding to
Lord Harry?

"Do you remember this hero's adventures?" she said.

"I can try, Miss, if you wish to hear about him."

The newspaper narrative appeared to have produced a vivid impression on
Rhoda's mind. Making allowance for natural hesitations and mistakes,
and difficulties in expressing herself correctly, she repeated with a
singularly clear recollection the substance of what she had read.

IX

THE principal characters in the story were an old Irish nobleman, who