"I am ready to hear it."

"Divil the word did he desire, Miss Maud, for everything was in
whispers between us, but jist what I'm about to repait. And here's my
stick, that Nick tould me to kape as a reminderer; it 's far bhetter
for me than a book, as I can't read a syllable. 'And now, Mike,' says
the majjor, says he, 'conthrive to see phratty Miss Maud by
herself'----"

"_Pretty_ Miss Maud!" interrupted the young lady, involuntarily.

"Och! it's meself that says _that_, and sure there 's plenty of
r'ason for it; so we'll agree it's all right and proper--'phratty Miss
Maud by herself, letting no mortal else know what you are about.
_That_ was the majjor's."

"It is very extraordinary!--Perhaps it will be better Michael, if you
tell me nothing but what is strictly the major's. A message should be
delivered as nearly like the words that were actually sent as
possible."

"Wor-r-ds!--And it isn't wor-r-ds at all, that I have to give ye."

"If not a message in words, in what else can it be?--Not in sticks,
surely."

"In _that_"--cried Mike, exultingly--"and, I'll warrant, when the
trut' comes out, that very little bit of silver will be found as good
as forty Injin scalps."

Although Mike put a small silver snuff-box that Maud at once recognised
as Robert Willoughby's property into the young lady's hand, nothing was
more apparent than the circumstance that he was profoundly ignorant of
the true meaning of what he was doing. The box was very beautiful, and
his mother and Beulah had often laughed at the major for using an
article that was then deemed _de rigueur_ for a man of extreme
_ton_, when all his friends knew he never touched snuff. So far from
using the stimulant, indeed, he never would show how the box was
opened, a secret spring existing; and he even manifested or betrayed
shyness on the subject of suffering either of his sisters to search for
the means of doing so.

The moment Maud saw the box, her heart beat tumultuously. She had a
presentiment that her fate was about to be decided. Still, she had
sufficient self-command to make an effort to learn all her companion
had to communicate.

"Major Willoughby gave you this box," she said, her voice trembling in
spite of herself. "Did he send any message with it? Recollect yourself;
the words may be very important."

"Is it the wor-r-ds? Well, it's little of _them_ that passed
between us, barrin' that the Injins was so near by, that it was whisper
we did, a