"Not if we are wary, daddy--not if we are cunning. You don't know what prompts me to speak so! Ah, daddy! Do you remember my telling you, when you first opened out the prospect of this pretty little cottage to me, that I was wilful, and might tease you a good deal, and that for that reason you had better consider very seriously whether it would do for you and me to live together as you proposed? I don't know whether to be thankful or sorry that I consented. I was very happy then--very, very happy." "You did it for my sake, Lizzie," he said humbly. "Not altogether; I did it a good deal for my own. I thought how nice it would be for Alfred." She covered her face with her hands to hide her tears. "You took pity on my lonely life, Lizzie, and I bless you for it, my child! You have brought much happiness to me, and things have occurred to me since then--such wonderful things." She looked up, with the tears in her eyes. "What wonderful things, daddy?" "That is my secret, my dear," he said sadly. "You do not know the history of my past life. The time may come--and soon--when you will learn it. I have become a better man, I hope, since we came to live here. Sit by me, my child, and tell me your trouble." She seated herself on a stool at his feet, and took his hand and caressed it. "And you have a secret, too," she murmured, "and a new one. We all of us have secrets, I think, that we are keeping from one another." "All of us! Have you a secret that you keep from me?" "Yes, daddy; and one that I must not tell anybody, not even you. I have promised. You must not ask me any questions about it, for I cannot answer them." "Very well, my dear. But tell me the reason of your feeling against Mr. Sheldrake." "Suppose you knew that he could destroy the happiness of the one you loved best in the world--suppose you knew that he was ready to use that power if you crossed him in any of his bad ways." "That is all supposing, Lizzie." "It is reality to me. Mr. Sheldrake has Alfred in his power, and can ruin him any minute he pleases. Alfred told me so to-night. O, daddy, daddy! I am unhappy and miserable, and I don't know which way to turn if you will not help me." "I will help you, child, in any way that I can. Does Alfred owe Mr. Sheldrake money?" "Yes, more than he can pay." "How has that come about?" "You must not tell anybody. Alfred would be angry. Alfred has lost the money in betting on horses." Mr. Musgrave started. The business that was conducted in Ivy Cottage was conducted in so secret a manner that Lizzie did not know its nature. She had been curious about it, and once or twice had asked the old man; but he had laughingly evaded her, and it was she who had dubbed the room in which he and Mr. Sheldrake were often closeted together for so long a time the Bluebeard's room. "Does he bet with Mr. Sheldrake, Lizzie?" "No--with a man named Con Staveley."