‘It is true, dearest papa. Eve took Jane with her as far as the gate, and there an ugly boy, who, Eve tells me, is Jasper’s brother, scared the girl away. I hurried off to the Rock as soon as told of this, and I saw through an opening of the trees someone with Eve, and heard a voice like that of Mr. Jasper. When I charged Eve with having met him, she could not deny it.’ ‘What does he want? Why did he ask to leave?’ ‘I can put but one interpretation on his conduct. I have for some time suspected a growing attachment between him and Eve. I suppose he knows that you never would consent——’ ‘Never, never!’ He clenched his hands, raised them over his head, uttered a cry, and dropped them. ‘Do be careful, dear papa,’ said Barbara. ‘You forget your wound; you must not raise your right arm.’ ‘It cannot be! It cannot be! Never, never!’ He was intensely moved, and paid no heed to his daughter’s caution. She caught his right hand, held it between her own firmly, and kissed it. ‘My God!’ cried the unhappy man. ‘Spare me this! It cannot be! The black spots come thick as rain.’ He waved his left hand as though warding off something. ‘Not as rain—as bullets.’ ‘No, papa, as you say, it never, never can be.’ ‘Never!’ he said eagerly, his wild eyes kindling with a lambent terror. ‘There stands between them a barrier that must cut them off the one from the other for ever. But of that you know nothing.’ ‘It is so,’ said Barbara; ‘there does stand an impassable barrier between them. I know more than you suppose, dear papa. Knowing what I do I have wondered at your permitting his presence in this house.’ ‘You know?’ He looked at her, and pressed his brow. ‘And Eve, does she know?’ ‘She knows nothing,’ answered Barbara; ‘I alone—that is, you and I together—alone know all about him. I found out when he first came here, and was ill.’ ‘From anything he said?’ ‘No—I found a bundle of his clothes.’ ‘I do not understand.’ ‘It came about this way. There was a roll on the saddle of his horse, and when I came to undo it, that I might put it away, I found that it was a convict suit.’ Mr. Jordan stared. ‘Yes!’ continued Barbara, speaking quickly, anxious to get the miserable tale told. ‘Yes, papa, I found the garments which betrayed him. When he came to himself I showed them to him, and asked if they were his. Afterwards I heard all the particulars: how he had robbed his own father of the money laid by to repay you an old loan, how his father had prosecuted him, and how he had been sent to prison; how also he had escaped from prison. It was as he was flying to the Tamar to cross it, and get as far as he could from pursuit, that he met with his accident, and remained here.’ ‘Merciful heaven!’ exclaimed Mr. Jordan; ‘you knew all this, and never told me!’