f any one in whom he was interested, he
was a dangerous person for the plotters, for he had plenty of time to
attend to them, and would be apt to take a kind of pleasure in matching
his wits against another crafty person's,--such a one, for instance, as
Mr. Macchiavelli Bradshaw.

Perhaps he caught some words of that gentleman's conversation at the
party; at any rate, he could not fail to observe his manner. When he
found that the young man had followed Myrtle back to the village, he
suspected something more than a coincidence. When he learned that he was
assiduously visiting The Poplars, and that he was in close communication
with Miss Cynthia Badlam, he felt sure that he was pressing the siege of
Myrtle's heart. But that there was some difficulty in the way was
equally clear to him, for he ascertained, through channels which the
attentive reader will soon have means of conjecturing, that Myrtle had
seen him but once in the week following his return, and that in the
presence of her dragons. She had various excuses when he
called,--headaches, perhaps, among the rest, as these are staple articles
on such occasions. But Master Gridley knew his man too well to think
that slight obstacles would prevent his going forward to effect his
purpose.

"I think he will get her; if he holds on," the old man said to himself,
"and he won't let go in a hurry, if there were any real love about
it--but surely he is incapable of such a human weakness as the tender
passion. What does all this sudden concentration upon the girl mean? He
knows something about her that we don't know,--that must be it. What did
he hide that paper for, a year ago and more? Could that have anything to
do with his pursuit of Myrtle Hazard today?"

Master Gridley paused as he asked this question of himself, for a
luminous idea had struck him. Consulting daily with Cynthia Badlam, was
he? Could there be a conspiracy between these two persons to conceal
some important fact, or to keep something back until it would be for
their common interest to have it made known?

Now Mistress Kitty Fagan was devoted, heart and soul, to Myrtle Hazard,
and ever since she had received the young girl from Mr. Gridley's hands,
when he brought her back safe and sound after her memorable adventure,
had considered him as Myrtle's best friend and natural protector. These
simple creatures, whose thoughts are not taken up, like those of educated
people, with the care of a grea