are a Member. Now to the squire
away! Thank the multitude and off, and as quick to Sarkeld as you well
can, and tell the squire from me that I pardon his suspicions. I have
landed you a Member--that will satisfy him. I am willing, tell
him... you know me competent to direct mines... bailiff of his
estates--whatever he pleases, to effect a reconciliation. I must be in
London to-night--I am in the thick of the fray there. No matter: go,
my son.' He embraced me. It was not a moment for me to catechize him,
though I could see that he was utterly deluded.

Between moonlight and morning, riding with Temple and Captain Bulsted on
either side of me, I drew rein under the red Grange windows, tired,
and in love with its air of sleepy grandeur. Janet's window was open.
I hailed her. 'Has he won?' she sang out in the dark of her room, as
though the cry of delight came upon the leap from bed. She was dressed.
She had commissioned Farmer Eckerthy to bring her the news at any hour
of the night. Seeing me, she clapped hands. 'Harry, I congratulate you
a thousand times.' She had wit to guess that I should never have thought
of coming had I not been the winner. I could just discern the curve and
roll of her famed thick brown hair in the happy shrug of her shoulder,
and imagined the full stream of it as she leaned out of window to talk
to us.

Janet herself, unfastened the hall-door bolts. She caressed the horses,
feverishly exulting, with charming subdued laughter of victory and
welcome, and amused us by leading my horse round to stables, and
whistling for one of the lads, playing what may, now and then, be a
pretty feature in a young woman of character--the fair tom-boy girl. She
and her maid prepared coffee and toast for us, and entered the hall,
one after the other, laden with dishes of cold meat; and not until the
captain had eaten well did she tell him slyly that somebody, whom she
had brought to Riversley yesterday, was abed and asleep upstairs. The
slyness and its sisterly innocence lit up our eyes, and our hearts
laughed. Her cheeks were deliciously overcoloured. We stole I know not
what from the night and the day, and conventional circumstances, and
rallied Captain Bulsted, and behaved as decorous people who treat the
night properly, and live by rule, do not quite do. Never since Janet was
a girl had I seen her so spirited and responsive: the womanly armour of
half-reserve was put away. We chatted with a fresh-hearted natural y