Produced by Al Haines. *JOHN HERRING* _A WEST OF ENGLAND ROMANCE_ BY SABINE BARING-GOULD AUTHOR OF ’MEHALAH’ IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. II. LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO, 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1883 [All rights reserved] *CONTENTS* OF THE SECOND VOLUME CHAPTER XXI. The Cub XXII. Moonshine and Diamonds XXIII. Paste XXIV. The Oxenham Arms XXV. A Levée XXVI. The Shekel XXVII. Cobbledick’s Rheumatics XXVIII. Caught in the Act XXIX. A Race XXX. Between Cup and Lip XXXI. Joyce’s Patient XXXII. Destitute XXXIII. Transformation XXXIV. Herring’s Stockings XXXV. Beggary XXXVI. Mirelle’s Guests XXXVII. A Second Summons XXXVIII. A Virgin Martyr XXXIX. Welltown XL. Noel! Noel! *JOHN HERRING.* *CHAPTER XXI.* *THE CUB.* Mirelle was conscious of a change in Trecarrel towards her. She ceased to engross his attentions, which were now directed towards Orange. She could not recall anything she had said or done that would account for this change. When the Captain was alone with her, he was full of sympathy and tenderness as before, but this was only when they were alone. Trecarrel argued with himself that it would be unfair and ungentlemanly to throw her over abruptly. He would lower her into the water little by little, but the souse must come eventually. Some of the martyrs were let down inch by inch into boiling pitch, others were cast in headlong, and the fate of the latter was the preferable, and the judge who sentenced to it was the most humane. Mirelle suffered. For the first time in her life her heart had been roused, and it threw out its fibres towards Trecarrel for support. She was young, an exile, among those who were no associates, and he was the only person to whom she could disclose her thoughts and with whom she could converse as an equal. He had met her with warmth and with assurances of sympathy. Of late he had drawn back, and she had been left entirely to herself, whilst his attention was engrossed by Orange Tramplara. But Orange, with no small spice of vindictiveness in her nature, urged the Captain to show civility to Mirelle. She knew the impression Trecarrel had made on her cousin’s heart, and, now that she was sure of the Captain, she was ready to encourage him to play with and torture her rival. Women are only cruel to their own sex, and towards them they are remorseless.