“You heard what Mr. Sparrow said, papa. He is a woman-hater.” “What, Sparrow!” exclaimed the squire, staring at her. “No, no; this--this Mr. Faradeane.” “And he takes the trouble--and gets knocked about--in saving a girl’s life. What rubbish!” he said. “That is a poor kind of woman-hater. Sparrow has got hold of some cock-and-bull story. I scarcely listened to him this afternoon, and don’t remember what it was he said; but it is nonsense, utter nonsense. This man is a gentleman. I never saw a finer face.” He paused and knit his brows. “Now I recall it, I seem to think that I remember having seen it before.” Olivia drew nearer to him with an eager expression in her beautiful eyes. “Papa!” “Yes,” he said, “I have a vague kind of impression, but I can’t fix it. Are you coming now?” Olivia breathed a short sigh of disappointment. “I thought you might have remembered,” she said. “I will come in one moment, papa. I must just see Bessie again.” “All right, I am in no hurry,” said the squire, and he sat down on the settle outside the door, and instantly, as it would seem, was absorbed by his own thoughts. Olivia ran upstairs on tiptoe, and entered Bessie’s room. The girl turned her large, innocent eyes upon the lovely face of her young mistress with eager gratitude. “Not gone yet, miss?” she said in a low voice. “Not yet, Bessie. Are you better?” “I am all right now, Miss Olivia; only weak and trembling like. Has--has the gentleman gone?” “Mr. Faradeane? Yes,” said Olivia, and she leaned down and smoothed the white coverlid. Bessie drew a long breath. “And I scarcely thanked him!” she said. “Oh, but I think you did, Bessie,” said Olivia. The girl shook her head, and the color came into her pale, childlike face. “I couldn’t thank him long enough, miss. He did save my life, though he made light of it, and put it off as nothing at all. Toby had bolted, and was racing like the wind, and the gentleman--tell me his name again, miss; it is a hard one to remember, and yet it sounds nice----” “Faradeane,” said Olivia. “Ah, yes, Faradeane! I shan’t forget it. Well, miss, he came out of the cottage, straight like a lion, and he leaped onto Toby. I could just see him before I fainted, and Toby knocked him down, and I thought he was killed, and then--I don’t recollect any more till he carried me in here. He said he wasn’t hurt, miss; but I saw the blood running from his forehead.” She shuddered. “Ah, miss, if I were a lady like you I could thank him as he deserves; but I’m only a poor girl that doesn’t know how to speak what she feels.” “I think you thanked him very prettily, Bessie,” said Olivia. “But I don’t think he wanted or liked being thanked. He would not stop to speak to papa, outside, just now.” A swift look of apprehension rose to Bessie’s eyes. “Ah, miss, he was hurt, and was trying to hide it; he didn’t want the squire to see. Oh, Miss Olivia, what shall I do? There is no one there to see after him.”