"There now, my dearie, good-bye till next I see you, and don't be doleful in that big house by yourself. Your uncle will soon be well, and nurse will be better able to see after you. I don't know what all those servants are after that they can't amuse you a bit." "Nurse doesn't like me ever to go near the servants' hall," said Milly; "I promised her I wouldn't. Sarah stays in the nursery with me, but she runs away downstairs pretty often. Good-bye, Mrs. Maxwell." It was getting dark. Maxwell soon had the child in his strong arms, and was striding along at a great pace, when passing a rather dark corner, a man suddenly sprang out of the bushes and took to his heels. Maxwell shouted out wrathfully: "Let me see you in here again, and it will be the worse for you, you scoundrel!" "Oh, Maxwell," cried Milly, "who is it?" "One of them skulking poachers--they're always in here after the rabbits. If I hadn't a-had you to look after and had my thick stick I would a-been after him." "But you wouldn't have hurt him?" "I should have taught him a lesson, that I should!" "But, Maxwell, you mustn't, really! Only think, he might be--Tommy coming home! You couldn't see who it was, could you? It would be dreadful if you chased away Tommy." "No fear o' that," Maxwell said in a quieter tone. "My own son wouldn't skulk along like that. He was a ragged vagabond, that's what he was." "Prodigal sons are nearly always ragged. He might have been some one's prodigal son, Maxwell." "He was just a poacher, my dear, and I think I know the chap. He's staying at the Blue Dragon, and has been a-watching this place for some time." "Perhaps he is one of God's prodigal sons," said Milly softly, "like Jack was." To this Maxwell made no reply, but when he set her down in the brightly-lighted hall a little later, he said,-- "Don't you fret about our Tommy. I should know him fast enough. He wouldn't run from his own father." And Milly went in, and that night added another petition to her prayers:-- "And please God, if the man who ran away from Maxwell is a prodigal son, bring him back to his father for Jesus' sake. Amen." CHAPTER VII. CROSS-EXAMINATION. "Nurse, where is Miss Millicent? I haven't seen her for days. Fetch her in here this afternoon, and you go and get a little fresh air; I am well enough to be left alone now." Sir Edward's tone was impatient. He was getting to the convalescent stage, and nurse found him a most trying patient. Nothing would please him, and he wearied both himself and her with his perpetual complaints. "I thought she would only worry you, sir. She has been asking me every day to come in and see you. I will fetch her at once." Milly shortly appeared in a clean pinafore, her little face radiant with smiles. As she climbed up into the chair by the bedside and gently stroked the hand that was given her, she said with sparkling eyes,--