no poacher, Richard."

"Is he not?" rejoined Richard Hare, significantly. "The truth as to what
he is may come out, some time. Not that I wish it to come out; the man
has done no harm to me, and he may go on poaching with impunity till
doomsday for all I care. He and Locksley--"

"Richard," interrupted his sister, in a hushed voice, "mamma entertains
one fixed idea, which she cannot put from her. She is certain that
Bethel had something to do with the murder."

"Then she is wrong. Why should she think so?"

"How the conviction arose at first, I cannot tell you; I do not think
she knows herself. But you remember how weak and fanciful she is,
and since that dreadful night she is always having what she calls
'dreams'--meaning that she dreams of the murder. In all these dreams
Bethel is prominent; and she says she feels an absolute certainty that
he was, in some way or other, mixed up in it."

"Barbara, he was no more mixed up in it than you."

"And--you say that you were not?"

"I was not even at the cottage at the time; I swear it to you. The man
who did the deed was Thorn."

"Thorn!" echoed Barbara, lifting her head. "Who is Thorn?"

"I don't know who. I wish I did; I wish I could unearth him. He was a
friend of Afy's."

Barbara threw back her neck with a haughty gesture. "Richard!"

"What?"

"You forget yourself when you mention that name to me."

"Well," returned Richard. "It was not to discuss these things that I put
myself in jeopardy; and to assert my innocence can do no good; it cannot
set aside the coroner's verdict of 'Wilful murder against Richard Hare,
the younger.' Is my father as bitter against me as ever?"

"Quite. He never mentions your name, or suffers it to be mentioned; he
gave his orders to the servants that it never was to be spoken in the
house again. Eliza could not, or would not remember, and she persisted
in calling your room 'Mr. Richard's.' I think the woman did it
heedlessly, not maliciously, to provoke papa; she was a good servant,
and had been with us three years you know. The first time she
transgressed, papa warned her; the second, he thundered at her as I
believe nobody else in the world can thunder; and the third he turned
her from the doors, never allowing her to get her bonnet; one of the
others carrying her bonnet and shawl to the gate, and her boxes were
sent away the same day. Papa took an oath--did you hear of it?"

"What oath? He takes many."

"This was a solemn