'Alas, my poor child!' he rejoined, 'you have come to the wrong house if you cannot put up with a little chafing. There!' he added, putting the plum in her hand, 'it is an untoothsome thing, but the moment may come when you will find it useful enough to repay you for the annoyance of a smile that had in it ten times more friendship than merriment.' 'I ask your pardon, my lord,' said Dorothy, by this time blushing deep with shame of her mistrust and over-sensitiveness, and on the point of crying downright. But his lordship smiled so kindly that she took heart and smiled again. He then showed her how to raise the key hid in the ring, and how to unlock the plum. 'Do not try it on yourself,' he said, as he put the ring on her finger; 'you might find that awkward.' 'Be sure I shall avoid it, my lord,' returned Dorothy. 'And do not let any one know you have such a thing,' he said, 'or that there is a key in your ring.' 'I will try not, my lord.' The breakfast bell rang. 'If you will come again after supper,' he said, as he pulled off his linen frock, 'I will show you my fire-engine at work, and tell you all that is needful to the understanding thereof;--only you must not publish it to the world,' he added, 'for I mean to make much gain by my invention.' Dorothy promised, and they parted--lord Herbert for the marquis's parlour, Dorothy for the housekeeper's room, and Caspar for the third table in the great hall. After breakfast Dorothy practised with her plum until she could manage it with as much readiness as ease. She found that it was made of steel, and that the bolts it threw out upon the slightest pressure were so rounded and polished that they could not hurt, while nothing but the key would reduce them again within their former sheath. END OF VOLUME I. START OF VOLUME II CHAPTER XVII. THE FIRE-ENGINE. As soon as supper was over in the housekeeper's room, Dorothy sped to the keep, where she found Caspar at work. 'My lord is not yet from supper, mistress,' he said. 'Will it please you wait while he comes?' Had it been till midnight, so long as there was a chance of his appearing, Dorothy would have waited. Caspar did his best to amuse her, and succeeded,--showing her one curious thing after another,--amongst the rest a watch that seemed to want no winding after being once set agoing, but was in fact wound up a little by every opening of the case to see the dial. All the while the fire-engine was at work on its mysterious task, with but now and then a moment's attention from Caspar, a billet of wood or a shovelful of sea-coal on the fire, a pull at a cord, or a hint from the hooked rod. The time went rapidly. Twilight was over, Caspar had lighted his lamp, and the moon had risen, before lord Herbert came.