nevertheless, which did not escape the stranger sitting opposite to her.
Brother Williams raised his down-dropped lids an instant. Those brilliant
eyes of his took in the girl's beauty and the change in Helbeck's
countenance.

"You shall stop what you like," said Helbeck. A mute conversation seemed
to pass between him and Miss Fountain; then the Squire turned to his
sister, and asked her cheerfully as to the merits of a new pony that she
and Laura had been trying that afternoon.

* * * * *

After dinner Helbeck, much troubled by the pinched features and pale
cheeks of his guest, descended himself to the cellar in search of a
particular Burgundy laid down by his father and reputed to possess a rare
medicinal force.

Mr. Williams was left standing before the hearth, and the famous carved
mantelpiece put up by the martyr of 1596. As soon as Helbeck was gone he
looked carefully--furtively--round the room. It was the look of the
peasant appraising a world not his.

A noise made by the wind at one of the old windows disturbed him. He
looked up and was caught by a photograph that had been propped against
one of the vases of the mantelpiece. It was a picture--recently
taken--of Miss Fountain sitting on the settle in the hall with the dogs
beside her. And it rendered the half-mocking animation of her small face
with a peculiar fidelity.

The young man was conscious of a strong movement of repulsion. Mr.