"I am afraid it is very bad,--bad at any rate, for the time coming. He has not had a shilling of rent for this spring, and he has to pay the money to Mrs. Pulteney and the others. Poor papa is sorely vexed, and we do not like to press him. He suggested himself that he would send Florian over to Mr. Blake's; but we think that Carnlough is not far enough, and that it would be unfair to impose such a trouble on another man." "Could he not send him to Mrs. Pulteney?" Now Mrs. Pulteney was a sister of Mr. Jones. "He does not like to ask her," said Edith. "He thinks that Mrs. Pulteney has not shown herself very kind of late. We are waiting till you speak to him about it." "But what does Florian do with himself?" he asked. "You will see. He does little or nothing, but roams about the house and talks to Peter. He did not even go to mass last Sunday. He says that the whole congregation would accuse him of being a liar." "Does he not know that he has done his duty by the lie he has told?" "But to go alone among these people!" said Ada. "And to hear their damnable taunts!" said Edith. "It is very hard upon him. I think it is papa's idea to keep him here till after the trial in August, and then, if possible, to send him to England. There would be the double journey else, and papa thinks that there would be no real danger till his evidence had been given." Then Frank went out of the house and walked round the demesne, so that he might think at his ease of all the troubles of his family. CHAPTER XXI. LAX, THE MURDERER. Frank Jones found his brother Florian alone in the butler's pantry, and was told that Peter was engaged in feeding the horses and cleaning out the stables. "He's mostly engaged in that kind of work now," said Florian. "Who lays the tablecloth?" asked Frank. "I do; or Edith; sometimes we don't have any tablecloth, or any clean knives and forks. Perhaps they'll have one to-day because you have come." "I wouldn't give them increased trouble," said Frank. "Papa told them to put their best foot forward because you are here. I don't think he minds at all about himself. I think papa is very unhappy." "Of course he's unhappy, because they have boycotted him. How should he not be unhappy." "It's worse than that," whispered Florian. "What can be worse?" "If you'll come with me I'll tell you. I don't want to say it here, because the girls will hear me;--and that old Peter will know everything that's said." "Come out into the grounds, and take a turn before dinner." At this Florian shook his head. "Why not, Flory." "There are fellows about," said Flory. "What fellows?" "The very fellows that said they'd kill me. Do you know that fellow Lax? He's the worst of them." "But he doesn't live here." "All the same, I saw him yesterday." "You were out then, yesterday?"