"Antony," he exclaimed, "it is too good to be true. It is fortune at last--success. Good heavens! it makes me turn giddy. Mother--Linny," he cried, in a low passionate wail, "at last there is sunshine breaking through the clouds." "I pray Heaven there may be, Hallett," I exclaimed; "but I have something to say to you." "What is it?" he cried. "Has the old man repented?" "Oh, no; you may be sure of him, Hallett. He is delighted at the opportunity, and thinks it will lead to fortune." "What do you mean, then?" "John Lister is hanging about this street." "Why? How? what makes you say that?" "I saw him pass the door, just now." His brow darkened, and involuntarily he uttered his sister's name. "No," I said; "I don't believe it of her. He is only trying to meet with her once more. I am sure Linny does not know it." "You are right, Antony; she cannot know it. We can trust her now. Let us go and sit upstairs." As we entered the room, Linny raised her eyes from the book which she was reading, and her calm ingenuous look was sufficient to disarm suspicion; but, all the same, Hallett and I both felt that the wolf was prowling about the fold, and that it behoved us to see that he had no further chance of carrying off our lamb. CHAPTER FIFTY ONE. MR LISTER IS MOVED ON. We had good reason to know that John Lister was hovering about the place, for I saw him several times, and found that in Hallett's absence and mine he had called and endeavoured to see Linny; but she had always refused, and on Mary being warned, he received such a rebuff that he did not call again. Still, however, he hung about, making the poor girl's life wretched, for at last she dared not go to the window for fear of being seen. Both Hallett and I wondered whether his pertinacity would make any impression. While we were in a state of doubt, it fell to my lot one evening to become Linny's escort to a distant part of London, and we were on our way back, when suddenly I felt her hand tighten upon my arm. "Quick, Antony," she whispered, "he is there!" "He is there?" I said wonderingly, for I did not comprehend her; but the next moment I caught sight of Lister coming towards us, and evidently fixing her with his eyes. There was a meaning smile upon his lip, and, apparently intending to ignore me, he was about to speak, when, with a gesture of horror, she shrank from him, turned her head aside, and begged me to hurry home. "We'll go home," I said; "but we will not hurry;" and I turned and met Lister's contemptuous stare, as he followed us at a little distance till we had reached the house. I was annoyed and distressed about this pertinacious pursuit, and I had just made up my mind to consult Hallett on the best way to put a stop to it, when an idea occurred to me. "It is very evident," I thought, "that Lister does not know who lives here;" and I laughed to myself as I quietly determined to put my plan in force.