mined every coin, and returned a
crown. "My piece this is not. It may be false. I will have the one I
gave to you.--Lettice, bring here water in a bowl; let the silver and
gold lay in it until morning."

[Illustration: She stood in the gray light by the window]

And, turning to the pedler, "Your cap take from the floor, and go."

"Of a truth, madam, you be not so cruel as to turn me on the fens, and
it a dark night. There be bogs all about; and how the road do lay for
the next house, I know not."

"The road to my house was easy to find; well, then, you can find the
road back to whoever it was sent you here. With my servants you shall
not sit; under my roof you shall not stay."

"I have no mind to go."

"See you the mastiff at my feet? I advise you stir him not up, for
death is in his jaw. To the gate, and with good haste! In one half-hour
the kennels I will have opened. If then within my boundaries you are, it
is at your life's peril."

She spoke without passion and without hurry or alarm; but there was no
mistaking the purpose in her white, resolute face and fearless attitude.
And the pedler took in the situation very quickly; for the dog was
already watching him with eyes of fiery suspicion, and an occasional
deep growl was either a note of warning to his mistress, or of defiance
to the intruder. With an evil glance at the beautiful, disdainful woman
standing over him, the pedler rose and left the house; Katherine and the
dog so closely following that the man, stooping under his heavy burden,
heard her light footsteps and the mastiff's heavy breathing close at his
heels, until he passed the large gates and found himself on the dark
fen, with just half an hour to get clear of a precinct he had made so
dangerous to himself.

For, when he remembered Katherine's face, he muttered, "There isn't a
mossel o' doubt but what she'll hev the brutes turned loose. Dash it!
women do beat all. But I do hev one bit o' comfort--high-to-instep as
she is, she's heving a bad time of it now by herself. I do think that,
for sure." And the reflection gave him some gratification, as he
cautiously felt his steps forward with his strong staff.

[Illustration: Chapter heading]

XIV.

"_Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments: love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds._"

In some respects, the pedler's anticipations were correct. Katherine had
"a bad time by