ith his murder!"

"Oh, pshaw! no one would have imagined such a thing."

"His daughter did," replied Peveril, in whose ears Mary Darrell's
terrible accusation was still ringing.

"She didn't know what she was saying. You must remember the trying
circumstances of her position, and forgive and forget everything else.
If I am any judge of human character, she is just the girl to bitterly
regret her hasty words, if she ever recalls having uttered them."

"Of course I forgive her," said Peveril; "but I doubt if I can forget
as long as I live."

A bath in water as hot as he could bear it, followed by a cold douche
and a brisk rubbing with the coarse towels procured from Aunty Nimmo,
restored the young man to his normal condition. Then he exchanged the
ragged garb of a miner, that he had worn ever since leaving Red
Jacket, for a suit of his own proper clothing. With this the
transformation in his appearance was so complete that when, a little
later, Mary Darrell passed him in the hall, it was without
recognition. She only regarded him as one of the many strangers who
seemed suddenly to have taken unauthorized possession of her home.

At breakfast-time the doctor reported that his patient was sleeping
quietly and doing wonderfully well. "In fact," said the medical
gentleman, "I believe the blood-letting that resulted from his fall
was just what he needed; and, as he seems to have a vigorous
constitution, unimpaired by intemperate living, I predict for him a
speedy recovery."

This prediction was so far fulfilled that, within two days, Ralph
Darrell was sitting up, and, by the end of a week, he had very nearly
regained his strength. At the same time his excitability had wholly
disappeared, leaving him very quiet and as docile as a child, but with
little memory of past happenings. His daughter was the one person whom
he recognized, and to her he clung with passionate fondness, readily
accepting her every suggestion, but always begging her to take him
back to his Eastern home.

His rapid convalescence was largely due to her devoted care, and to
the capital nursing of Nelly Trefethen, who proved most efficient in
the sick-room. During that week the night-watches were taken by Mike
Connell, whom Miss Darrell engaged expressly for the purpose, but
Peveril was not asked to share them.

On the few occasions when he and Mary chanced to meet she treated him
with formal politeness, but rarely spoke, and never gave him the
oppo