‘I will not go,’ said Jasper, ‘I dare not. I have the interest of your family too near my heart to leave.’ ‘You will not go!’ exclaimed Barbara, trembling with anger and scorn. ‘I neither believe you, nor trust you. I’—she set her teeth and said through them, with her heart in her mouth—’Jasper, I _hate_ you!’ CHAPTER XXXII. WANDERING LIGHTS. NO sooner was Mr. Jordan left alone than his face became ghastly, and his eyes were fixed with terror, as though he saw before him some object of infinite horror. He put his quivering thin hands on the elbows of his armchair and let himself slide to his knees, then he raised his hollow eyes to heaven, and clasped his hands and wrung them; his lips moved, but no vocal prayers issued from them. He lifted his hands above his head, uttered a cry and fell forward on his face upon the oak floor. Near his hand was his stick with which he rapped against the wall or on the floor when he needed assistance. He laid hold of this, and tried to raise himself, but faintness came over him, and he fell again and lost all consciousness. When he recovered sufficiently to see what and who were about him, he found that he had been lifted on to his bed by Jasper and Barbara, and that Jane was in the room. His motion with his hands, his strain to raise himself, had disturbed the bandages and reopened his wound, which was again bleeding, and indeed had soaked through his clothes and stained the floor. He said nothing, but his eyes watched and followed Jasper with a mixture of hatred and fear in them. ‘He irritates me,’ he whispered to his daughter; ‘send him out. I cannot endure to see him.’ Then Barbara made an excuse for dismissing Jasper. When he was gone, Mr. Jordan’s anxiety instead of being allayed was increased. He touched his daughter, and drew her ear to him, and whispered, ‘Where is he now? What is he doing?’ ‘I do not know, papa. He is probably in his room.’ ‘Go and see.’ ‘Papa dear, I cannot do that. Do you want him?’ ‘Do _I_ want him? No, Barbara, but I do not choose that he shall escape. Go and look if there is a light in his window.’ She was about to send Jane, when her father impatiently insisted on her going herself. Wondering at his caprice she obeyed. No sooner was the door closed behind her, than the old man signed Jane Welsh to come near him. ‘Jane,’ he said in a whisper, ‘I want you to do something for me. No one must know about it. You have a sweetheart, I’ve heard, the policeman, Joseph Woodman, at Tavistock.’ The girl pulled at the ends of her apron, and looking down, said, ‘Lawk! How folks do talk!’ ‘Is it true, Jane?’ ‘Well, sir, I won’t deny us have been keeping company, and on Sunday went to a love-feast together.’ ‘That is well,’ said Mr. Jordan earnestly, with his wild eyes gleaming. ‘Quick, before my daughter comes. Stand nearer. No one must hear. Would you do Joseph a good turn and get him a sergeantry?’ ‘O please, sir!’ ‘Then run as fast as you can to Tavistock.’