ents of faith in it--a
wonderful audacity of faith in her own power to revolutionise her life
and control her sister's, and all the unreasoning child-likeness of
faith which could launch itself boldly into an unknown future without
any knowledge of what life would be like there.

On the part of Toyner the contract showed the power that certain habits
of thought, although exercised only for a few months, had over him. Good
people are fond of talk about the weakness of good habits compared with
the strength of bad ones. But, given the same time to the formation of
each, the habits which a man counts good must be stronger than those
which he counts evil, because the inner belief of his mind is in unity
with them. Toyner believed to-night that he was in open revolt against a
rule of life which he had found himself unable to adhere to, and against
the God who had ordained it; but, all the same, it was this rule, and
faith in the God which he had approached by means of it, that actuated
him during this conference with Ann. As a man who had given up hope for
himself might desire salvation for his child, so he gravely and gently
set her feet in what he was accustomed to regard as the path of life
before he himself left it.

CHAPTER IX.

Ann's plan of the way in which Toyner more than any other man could aid
her father was simple enough. He who was known to be in pursuit of
Markham was to take him as a friend through the town at The Mills and
start him on the road at the other side. Markham was little known at The
Mills, and no one would be likely to take the companion of the constable
to be the criminal for whose arrest he had been making so much
agitation; they were to travel at the early hour of dawn when few were
stirring. This plan, with such modifications as his own good sense
suggested, Toyner was willing to adopt.

He started earlier in the evening than she had done, having no
particular desire for secrecy. He told his friends that he was going to
row to The Mills by night, and those who heard him supposed that he had
gained some information concerning Markham that he thought it best to
report. It was a calm night; the smoke of distant burning was still in
the air.

He dropped down the river in the dark hours before the moonrise, and
began to row with strength, as Ann had done, when he reached the placid
water. His boat was light and well built. He could see few yards of dark
water in advance; he could see