But Nat sprang from his corner with the sudden, violent anger into which his impatience could be kindled by reproach, his cheeks flushed into feverish beauty, and his lips shaking with the emotion that quivered through his young frame like starts of pain. ‘It’s allays the way--it’s been allays so,’ he said; ‘ye care for my sister, but ye willent care for me. It’s nothin’ to ye as she’s the talk of all t’ village, as she’s shamed an’ disgraced you till she’s well-nigh mad with it. So long as it isn’t me ye can forgive, though I’ve done no harm, I’ve been allays good to ye. T’ Squire’ll do me justice; he don’t think harm on me; he’ll give me money so as I can get away from you. I won’t be your son nor care for ye no longer, ye doesn’t deserve to have a son like me.’ He had spoken so fiercely that he was quite past hearing that during his words there had been a knock at the door; but now, with a start, he realised that it was open, and that dark figures were standing in the winter night beyond it. A sudden silence fell upon all within the place; even Annie’s struggling and chattering were hushed. For it was Tim Nicol who stepped into the cottage, with a face as dark with anxiety as a night before a storm. ‘I’m come for ye, Nat; t’ Squire has sent his servants; but they asked me if I’d be the one to say t’ word. They thought as I knew ye, and your mother an’ your sister, as it might happen to come more light from me. T’ Squire has sent; he wants to ask ye a question; there’s a five poun’ note lost, an’ he wants to ask of it. I trust, for the sake of Heaven, as ye’ll contrive to clear yoursel’; but come quickly now, for there’s no escape for ye.’ For one dreadful instant Nat felt the cottage reel, and lights, darkness, people, were hidden from his sight; and then through that blindness he heard the sound of a fall, and knew that his mother was lying upon the floor near him. He could not speak .... could not answer his accusers .... could only catch hold of Tim to support himself on his feet; and speechless, staggering, without a word to defend himself, was half-supported, half-dragged into the night. The door was closed .... there was silence in the cottage .... Jenny lay on the ground, without strength to raise herself. The accumulating misery that had been gathering so long had risen at length like a flood and she had sunk.... ‘Oh, dear Mrs Salter,’ whispered Alice in her ear, as she sat on the floor and held Jenny in her arms--‘do raise your head now, I’ve sent ’em all away; there isn’t any one here besides my mother and me. Annie’s lyin’ upstairs; she seems to be quieter now; an’ my mother’s with her, an’ I’m alone wi’ ye .... an’ oh, do tell me if there’s aught I can do for ye, whilst ye are waitin’ to have more news o’ Nat. T’ Lord is good,’ Alice murmured with streaming eyes, ‘He gives a blessing to them as wait for Him.’