"Yes--ah, yes, for it has frightened me often to see a little, white figure glide into my room at night, with vacant, unseeing eyes. I always feared you would run into some terrible danger. Your mother had the same unfortunate habit," replied the old man. "Grandpa, it was through that habit of mine that I broke my word to black mammy," said Golden, with an earnestness that showed how truthful was her explanation. "Tell me how it occurred, Golden," he said, fixing his dim eyes anxiously on her face. "Grandpa, I am almost ashamed to tell you," she replied, blushing crimson, "but it was in this way. The night after Mr. Chesleigh entered my room by accident, I was very restless in my sleep. I will tell you the truth. I had begun to love the handsome stranger. I thought of him before I fell asleep, and in my restless slumbers I dreamed of him. So I fell into my old habit of wandering in a state of somnambulism. It was a beautiful moonlight night. I dressed myself and wandered out into the grounds, and down by the lake, my favorite resting-place. Suddenly I started, broad awake in the arms of Mr. Chesleigh. I had gone too near the edge of the lake, and he had saved me from falling in." She shuddered slightly, and resumed: "In common gratitude I was compelled to speak, and thank the gentleman for saving me from a watery grave. Do you think I was wrong to do so?" "It would have been cold and ungrateful to have omitted thanking him," he admitted. "So I thought," said Golden. "If your intercourse had stopped there, Golden, I should have had no words of blame for you. But you have carried on a secret intrigue ever since. You have stolen out to meet that man every night, have you not?" "Yes, grandpa, but we loved each other," said the simple child, who seemed to think that was ample excuse for what she had done. Hugh Glenalvan groaned, and remained lost in thought for a moment. Then he bent down and whispered a question in her ear. She started violently; the warm, ever-ready color flashed into her cheek; she threw up her head and looked at him with proud, grieved eyes. "Grandpa, you hurt me cruelly," she replied. "Do not think of me so unkindly. I am as pure as the snow." He seemed to be relieved by the words so quickly and proudly spoken. The next minute he said, gravely: "My child, has this gentleman ever said anything to you of marriage?" Little Golden remained silent and thoughtful a moment, then she answered, steadily. "Yes." "He wishes to marry you, then?" "Yes," answered the girl, with a little quiver of triumphant happiness in her voice. "When?" he asked. A shadow fell over the fair, sweet face a moment. "I do not know exactly when," she replied. "But Mr. Chesleigh will see you to-morrow--he told me just now that he would--and then he will settle everything."