‘Oh, Tor!’ said Maud; ‘you know you don’t think that!’ ‘What?’ ‘That I should ever have turned against you?’ ‘Why should you not?’ She looked up at him and shook her head gravely. ‘You can’t guess, of course?’ ‘I was never much of a hand at guessing.’ ‘No? Well, then you had better remain in ignorance.’ ‘I don’t want to remain in ignorance. I want you to tell me.’ ‘As if you did not know!’ ‘Tell me, I say.’ ‘I’m not sure if I will.’ ‘But I am—quite sure. Come, Maud; how long am I to be kept waiting?’ ‘You deserve to be kept all night, you tyrant! but you always do manage to get your own way. You know it is because—I love you with my whole heart!’ And with that answer Tor seemed content. CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST. And so wrong was made right, and justice overtook the evil-doer; and in a very short time the Belassis family had removed from Thornton House, taking all their goods with them, and leaving behind no pleasant regrets in the minds of others, nor even the feeling that they would be missed from the neighbourhood where they had lived so long. No, never popular with anyone, the name of Belassis became opprobrious when the news of his conduct was noised abroad. When once the belief in his honesty had exploded, everybody had some tale to tell of his hardness or trickery or deceitfulness, and very heartily was he abused in all quarters. ‘Serve him right! I hope he will feel it!’ said Miss Marjory, when she heard of it. ‘For I always did say you let him off far too easily, Mr. Torwood.’ ‘I can’t hit a man when he’s down,’ answered Tor. ‘I had too completely the whip-hand of him to use it with much force.’ ‘If I’d been in your place, I’d not have spared him!’ cried the eager little gentlewoman. ‘I’d have scared him out of his senses. He’s an old villain, and doesn’t deserve anybody’s compassion.’ ‘No, he doesn’t deserve any consideration at all, I quite admit,’ returned Tor; ‘but the fact is, he was such a pitiable and contemptible object, that one didn’t care to waste words of any kind over him. You’d have felt the same if you’d been in my place, Miss Marjory. I am quite sure you would.’ ‘Well, well, perhaps so; but I shall always say and think that Belassis got off much more easily than he deserved—much more easily than he would have done if I’d had the handling of him.’ ‘Well, Miss Marjory, console yourself with the thought that his wife has had the handling of him,’ answered Tor, with a smile. ‘I think, if you had seen the look in her eye, you would have been content. I felt that I couldn’t leave him in better hands.’ Miss Marjory laughed. ‘Ah yes, there’s something in that; but then I ought to have the handling of _her_; for she’s almost as bad as her husband, and it’s more disgraceful in her than in him, for she has good blood in her veins.’