is father. He knew it
would not do to be seen too often at the house, or Mr and Mrs
Castleton would have been suspecting something, and so he persuaded Miss
Ellen to come out and meet him in the park, and she fancied that no one
knew of it. This went on for some time till Mr Ranald and Mr Ralph
came home from college. One evening, as Mr Ranald was returning from a
ride on horseback, and had taken a short cut across the park, he found
his sister and Martin Goul walking together in the wood. Now one might
have supposed that if the account of his own love affair was true he
would have had some fellow-feeling for his sister and old schoolmate,
and not thought she was doing anything very wrong after all, but that
wasn't his idea in the least. Without more ado he laid his whip on
Martin's shoulders, and ordered him off the grounds, much as he would a
poacher. Martin, the strongest of the two by far, would have knocked
him down if Miss Ellen had not interfered and begged Martin to go away,
declaring that if fault there was it was entirely hers. Martin did go,
swearing that he would have the satisfaction one gentleman had a right
to demand from another. Mr Ranald laughed at him scornfully, and,
taking Miss Ellen's arm, led her back to the house.

Mr Ranald was not on the terms, as I have said, which he should have
been with his father or even with his mother, so he said nothing to
them, but taking the matter into his own hands, told his sister to go to
her room and remain there. She, as I said, was a gentle-spirited girl,
and did as she was bid, only sitting down and crying and wringing her
hands at the thoughts of what might come of what she had done. Poor
dear young lady, she told me all about it afterwards, and I thought her
heart would break; and I was not far wrong, as it turned out at last.

Now, though Mr Ranald and Mr Ralph were not on affectionate terms as
brothers should be, and were seldom together, they were quite at one in
this matter. Mr Ralph was by far the more clever, and had gained all
sorts of honours at college we heard; so that Mr Ranald looked up to
him when there was anything of importance to be done, and took his
opinion when he wouldn't have listened to any one else.

The brothers were closeted a long time together talking the matter over,
as they thought very seriously of it, and considered that the honour of
the family was at stake. They then got their sister to come to them,
and tried t