A couple of Sundays after her departure, between ten and eleven in the morning, Ralph Grym appeared at the parsonage, and asked to see the rector. He was admitted, and after a little preliminary conversation, stated his desire to have an interview with his child, then aged five. This could not be refused. The little girl was introduced, and Ralph talked to her, and played with her. In the meantime the bells for service were ringing. The bell changed to the last single toll, five minutes before divine worship began, and Mr. Grym made no signs of being in a hurry to depart. The rector, obliged to attend to his sacred duties, drew his son aside, a boy of sixteen, and said to him, "Harry, keep your eye on Rosalind, and on no account suffer Mr. Grym to carry her off." The boy accordingly remained at home. "Well, young shaver," said Ralph, "what are you staying here for?" "My father does not wish me to go to church this morning." "Rosalind," said her father, "go, fetch your bonnet, and come a walk with me. I have some peppermints in my pocket." The child, highly elated, got herself ready. Henry, the rector's son, also prepared to go out. "Young shaver, we don't want you," said Ralph, rudely. "My father ordered me to take a walk this morning, sir." "There are two ways--I and Rosalind go one, and you the other," said Ralph. "My father bade me on no account leave Rosalind." Ralph growled and went on, the boy following. Mr. Grym led the way for six miles, and the child became utterly wearied. The father made every effort to shake off the boy. He swore at him, he threatened him, money he had not got to offer him; all was in vain. At last, when the little girl sat down exhausted, and began to cry, the father with an oath left her. "That," said Henry, in after life, "was the first time I had to do with Ralph Grym, and then I beat him." Many years after he had again to stand as Rosalind's protector against Ralph, then striking at his child with a dead hand, and again he beat him. After her mother's death Ralph invited his daughter to Grimstone, but only with the object of extorting from her the three thousand pounds she had inherited from her mother. When she refused to surrender this, he let her understand that her presence was irksome to him. He shifted the hour of dinner from seven to nine, then to ten, and finally gave orders that no dinner was to be served for a week. Still she did not go. "I want your room, Rosalind," he said roughly; "I have a friend coming." "The house is large, there are plenty of apartments; he shall have mine, I will move into another." "I want all the rooms." "I see you want to drive me away." "I beg you will suit yourself as to the precise hour to-morrow when you leave."