"Yes, and I may smell the flowers, and--and--but I want our own house too." "Ah, well, we shall see. There, you are not to think any more about that now." "Why doesn't Mr Bayle come, grandpa? Did the bad people hurt him very much?" "Oh no, my darling: he's all right, and he punished some of them." "And when will papa come?" "Hush, child," cried Millicent in a harsh, strange voice, "I cannot hear to hear you." The child looked at her in a scared manner and clung to her grandfather, but struggled from his embrace directly after, and ran to her mother, throwing her arms about her, and kissing her and sobbing. "Oh, my own dear, dear mamma!" "My darling, my darling!" cried Millicent, passionately clasping her to her breast; and Mrs Luttrell drew away to leave them together, creeping quietly to the doctor's side, and laying her hand upon his shoulder, looking a while in his eyes as if asking whether she were doing wisely. The doctor nodded, and for a few minutes there was no sound heard but Millicent's sobs. "I wish Mr Bayle would come," said Julia all at once in her silvery childish treble. "Silence, child!" cried Millicent fiercely. "Father dear, speak to me; can you not help me in this trouble? You know the charge is all false?" "My darling, I will do everything I can." "Yes, yes, I know, but every one seems to have turned against us--Sir Gordon, Mr Bayle, the whole town. It is some terrible mistake: all some fearful error. How dare they charge my husband with a crime?" She gazed fiercely at her father as she spoke, and the old man stood with his arms about Mrs Luttrell and his lips compressed. "You do not speak," cried Millicent; "surely you are not going to turn against us, father?" "Oh! Milly, my own child," sobbed Mrs Luttrell, running to her to take her head to her breast, "don't speak to us like that; as if your father would do anything but help you." "Of course, of course," cried Millicent excitedly; "but there, I must put off all this pitiful wailing." She rose in a quiet, determined way, and wiped her eyes hastily, arranged her hair, and began to walk up and down the room. Then, stopping, she forced a smile, and bent down and kissed Julia, sending a flash of joy through her countenance. "Go and look round the garden, darling. Pick mamma a nice bunch of flowers." "Will you come too, grandpa?" cried the child eagerly. "I'll come to you presently, darling," said the doctor nodding; and the child bounded to the open window with a sigh of relief, but ran back to kiss each in turn. "Now we can speak," cried Millicent, panting, as she forced herself to be calm. "There is no time for girlish sobbing when such a call as this is made upon me. The whole town is against poor Robert; they have wrecked and burnt our house, and they have cast him into prison." "My darling, be calm, be calm," said the doctor soothingly.