"Well, you Dumbrick!" exclaimed Ned. Seth Dumbrick merely smiled; the most irritating answer he could have made. "You Dumbrick, do you hear?" demanded Ned. "Oh, yes, I hear," quietly replied Seth. "What do you want?" "My sister." "Sally!" called Seth Dumbrick. "Here's your brother wants to see you." Sally came up from the cellar, accompanied by the Duchess. They stood by Seth's side, who proceeded with his work in silence. Ned Chester gave Sally a wrathful look, and made as though he would clutch her. Seth, an attentive observer of every look and movement, interposed his arm. "What's that for?" cried Ned Chester, fancying that he saw his opportunity. Seth Dumbrick looked at his bare arm contemplatively, as though that was the subject upon which Ned Chester desired information. His shirt sleeves were tucked up to his shoulders, and his muscles made no mean display. "What's that for?" he echoed, holding out his arm, and straightening it, so that his clenched fist almost touched the young man's face. Ned Chester started back with an exclamation of alarm; he was not a brave man. "Are you going to hit me?" he cried. "No," said Seth Dumbrick; "there's no call to hit you, I take it. I thought you asked what my arm was for. Well, it's for work. Yours is for play, I suppose. But as my arm _has_ come into the conversation, let me tell you that it's an arm that can take its own part, though it's many a year ago since it struck anything more sensible than leather." The hint was too plain to be mistaken. Ned Chester turned to Sally. "Sally," he whined, "haven't you got something to say to your poor brother?" Sally considered for a moment, and made up her mind once and for all, if the tone in which she spoke could be taken as an indication. "No," she said, "I ain't got nothink to say, and I don t want to have nothink to do with you." "By which," added Seth Dumbrick, as a strong endorsement, "_I_ should understand, if I was in your place, that my room would be better than my company." "You little viper!" exclaimed Ned Chester wrathfully, addressing his sister, and would have continued but that Seth interrupted him with: "Stop, stop; this young lady's under my protection. If she doesn't want to say anything to you, you shan't make her. Go down, Sally, if you don't care to stop." Sally, glad to escape, was about to obey, when the Duchess, who had not moved from Sally's side during the conversation, plucked Seth Dumbrick's shirt-sleeve. Seth peered inquisitively at her. "Don't hurt him," lisped the child. A gleam of satisfaction came into Ned Chester's eyes. "No, no, Duchess," said Seth good-humouredly, "I'll not hurt him. Nobody wants to do anything to him one way or the another. Go down with Sally." But before the Duchess obeyed, she held out her hand to Ned. "Goodbye," she said. Ned seized her hand and kissed it. "Goodbye," he said, with a triumphant glance at Seth; "there's one at all events with a heart in her bosom."