“Young man,” he said, “you have taken a deep interest in me and mine since I first came to know you, and I thank you for it all. I’ve nothing to give in return except my prayers, and those you have every day; you and that doctor. I pray for you two just as I do for Maddy. Somehow you three come in together. You’re uncommon good to Maddy. ’Tain’t every one like you who would offer and insist on learning her. I don’t know what you do it for. You seem honest. You can’t, of course, ever dream of making her your wife, and, if I thought—yes, if I supposed,”—here grandpa’s voice trembled, and his face became livid with horror at the idea—“if I supposed that in your heart there was the shadow of an intention to deceive my child, to ruin my Maddy, I’d throttle you here on the spot, old as I am, and bitter as I should repent the rashness.” Guy attempted to speak, but grandpa motioned him to be silent, while he went on: “I do not suspect you, and that’s why I trust her with you. My old eyes are dim, but I can see enough to know that Maddy is beautiful. Her mother was so before her, and the Clydes were a handsome race. My Alice was elevated, folks thought, by marrying Captain Clyde, but I don’t think so. She was pure and good as the angels, and Maddy is much like her, only she has the ambition of the Clydes; has their taste for everything a little above her. She wouldn’t make nobody blush if she was mistress of Aikenside.” Grandpa felt relieved when he had said all this to Guy, who listened politely, smiling at the idea of deceiving Maddy, and fully concurring with grandpa in all he said of her rare beauty and natural gracefulness. On their return to the house grandpa showed Guy the bed-room intended for Uncle Joseph, and Guy, as he glanced at the furniture, thought within himself how he would send down from Aikenside some of the unused articles piled away on the garret when he refurnished his house. CHAPTER XIII. GOSSIP. In course of time Uncle Joseph came, as was arranged, and on the day following Maddy and Guy went down to see him, finding him a tall, powerfully-built man, retaining many vestiges of manly beauty, and fully warranting all Mrs. Markham had said in his praise. He seemed perfectly gentle and harmless, though when Guy was announced as _Mr. Remington_, Maddy noticed that in his keen black eyes there was for an instant a fiery gleam, but it quickly passed away, as he muttered: “Much too young; he was older than I, and I am over forty. It’s all right.” And the fiery eye grew soft and almost sleepy in its expression, as the poor lunatic turned next to Maddy, telling her how pretty she was, asking her if she were engaged, and bidding her be careful that her _fiancé_ was not more than a dozen years older than herself.