for one of the watchmen from the mill, and we will watch the house to-night. I have a reason for wishing to do so; I am almost certain there is need for it.'

He was more than almost certain, had he chosen to say so.

'You will-you will!' said Katharine, but not very boldly. 'You take a good deal

upon yourself, Mr. Earnshaw.'

'When one person casts his burden down, another has to take it up: that truth is not considered nearly enough. You can't lay your duty down by the roadside and leave it there; what you leave undone another has to do,' said Ughtred, argumentatively. Then, after a pause, 'I don't even know that I need a fellow watchman. Let me have Cæsar,

your bloodhound - he knows me, and obeys me; and I'll undertake to scatter any midnight visitors who may come.'

For an instant expostulatory words came crowding to her lips. She opened her mouth

to utter them; then, with a sudden change and a smile, for which he could not account,

she said

'Very well.

Cæsar, the watchman, the coachman, the grooms, are all at your service. Do what you like; only don't alarm those silly girls in the kitchen. And now, as I am rather bewildered with so much ado about nothing, I will wish you good-night; but I will not thank you until we see what fearful events happen.'

He smiled, took the hand she offered, and bowed over it in silence; but presently said— 'I am quite content to abide by that.'

CHAPTER XII.

""Now, my dear friend, allow the young man to receive what praise I can give him. I have a great desire to pronounce his encomium."' -SHELLEY'S Banquet of Plato.

T breakfast Katharine asked if there had been any disturbance during the night.

'Law, yes 'm!' said the maid, opening her eyes to their extreme circumference. 'Mr. Earnshaw came up again about half-past ten, and began to loose Cæsar, and John' (one of the grooms) asked him what he was doing. He said he was going to watch, for there was rough characters about, and that John might stay with him if he liked -he didn't want nobody as was afraid. But

John's got a rare good spirit of his own, and he watched up with Mr. Earnshaw, and it was him as told me this morning, [for we knew nothing about it before. They sat in the harness-room a good while, and then'Well ? '

The maid dropped her voice, as suited the tale of dread she was relating

They chained Cæsar so as they could loose him in a minute, and about half-past one or two o'clock they heard footsteps, and they looks out, and makes out three men, 'm (a really fine dramatic pause). 'Mr. Earnshaw thought they was trying to make out where the dog was, so he opens the door of the harness-room sudden, and says,

Now then, you fellers," he says, “I'd like to know your business." They was dumbfoundered, John says; and Mr. Earnshaw strikes a light, and lights his lantern in a minute, and asks them again what they wants. They said they'd lost their way, and

VOL. III.

K

was on the tramp for Todmorden.

So he says, "Well, the Todmorden road's straight before you, and the sooner you get on to it again, and go on your way to Todmorden, the better for you," he says, warning, like. They saw the dog, and as he was looking very ugly at them, and they saw as John and Mr. Earnshaw had got a pistol apiece, they asks him to hold in the dog while they found their way to the road again. "Oh, with pleasure," says he; "but if I don't hear a whistle from the road in less than five minutes, I loose this dog upon you." In two minutes the villains was clear hoff, 'm. John says Mr. Earnshaw was that cool, he might have been talking to a friend in broad daylight the 'ole time.'

Katharine dismissed the girl, and sat reflecting upon what she had heard. She bit her lips, thinking, thinking, 'How delighted he must be with my gratitude and my manners!'

Katharine was detained long at the mill