"God in heaven! You cannot mean that you favour that beast, Sheffield!" "No profane language here, Frank. Lord Sheffield is a changed man." Nothing could exceed my aunt's complacency as she gave me this assurance. "Has he made proposal of marriage?" I asked. "Not directly as yet; but he is quite open with me," and the good woman smiled loftily. "Then he comes here?" "He has been several times to hear your uncle discourse, who is satisfied that a work of grace has begun in his lordship's soul. But, bless me! I shall be late with dinner." And she began to bustle among her stores. "When do your guests arrive?" I asked. "They have been here since the day before yesterday. You will find them in the garden." So saying, she hurried off to the kitchen. What Sheffield's game might be, I could not guess; but that he had some evil design in professing to be edified by the homilies of the simple clergyman, and in flattering his still simpler wife, there could be no doubt whatever. The sight of Mistress Goel in a chair on the grass-plot under the shade of an old pear-tree drove away my gloomy surmisings. She rose to greet me in her pretty way of formal courtesy, and when she resumed her seat, I threw myself on the grass near her, and found her bright face lovelier than ever when looked at from that position. "How long it is since I saw you!" said I. "I have been full of business which I might not leave, or I should have been to Sandtoft ere this." "It is well that you have not," she answered. "Our men are furious. Almost every night a machine is broken, or something is stolen, or an attempt to fire the buildings is made. Four days ago, a barge came down the river too late to be unladen, and the man who kept watch on board was seized, gagged, and bound, and the boat was scuttled, with the man in it. It was done with such stealth that our men knew nothing of it until morning, although the sentinels had been at their posts all through the night." "But I have nothing to do with midnight marauders," I growled. "Our men do not know that. They have heard that you are one of the instigators of these doings." "Is not my--my acquaintance with you a warrant that I am not an enemy?" "No. I am sorry to confess that our acquaintance leads to our being suspected rather than to your absolution." "Good heavens! Our Islonians have not a monopoly of barbarism, it would seem." "Remember that our men are strangers in a strange land. They are plundered, harassed, threatened. Some of their comrades have been killed. The night attacks are so skilfully made as to lead them to think there must be a traitor within the camp. My father is in the habit of walking and watching late o' nights, and I have talked with one of the enemy. Most unhappily, Vermuijden is away, and it is uncertain when he will return. I was glad indeed to leave the settlement for a few days, and you will be wise not to come over at present."