faced refuge on
John's breast. Of course the magic word "wife" on Dorothy's lips aroused
John to action, and--but a cloud at that moment passed over the moon and
kindly obscured the scene.

"You do not blame me, John," said Dorothy, "because I cannot go with you
to-night? You do not blame me?"

"Indeed I do not, my goddess," answered John. "You will soon be mine. I
shall await your pleasure and your own time, and when you choose to come
to me--ah, then--" And the kindly cloud came back to the moon.

CHAPTER X

THOMAS THE MAN SERVANT

After a great effort of self-denial John told Dorothy it was time for her
to return to the Hall, and he walked with her down Bowling Green Hill to
the wall back of the terrace garden.

Dorothy stood for a moment on the stile at the old stone wall, and John,
clasping her hand, said:--

"You will perhaps see me sooner than you expect," and then the cloud
considerately floated over the moon again, and John hurried away up
Bowling Green Hill.

Dorothy crossed the terrace garden, going toward the door since known as
"Dorothy's Postern." She had reached the top of the postern steps when she
heard her father's voice, beyond the north wall of the terrace garden well
up toward Bowling Green Hill. John, she knew, was at that moment climbing
the hill. Immediately following the sound of her father's voice she heard
another voice--that of her father's retainer, Sir John Guild. Then came
the word "Halt!" quickly followed by the report of a fusil, and the sharp
clinking of swords upon the hillside. She ran back to the wall, and saw
the dimly outlined forms of four men. One of them was John, who was
retreating up the hill. The others were following him. Sir George and Sir
John Guild had unexpectedly returned from Derby. They had left their
horses with the stable boys and were walking toward the kitchen door when
Sir George noticed a man pass from behind the corner of the terrace
garden wall and proceed up Bowling Green Hill. The man of course was John.
Immediately Sir George and Guild, accompanied by a servant who was with
them, started in pursuit of the intruder, and a moment afterward Dorothy
heard her father's voice and the discharge of the fusil. She climbed to
the top of the stile, filled with an agony of fear. Sir George was fifteen
or twenty yards in advance of his companion, and when John saw that his
pursuers were attacking him singly, he turned and quickly ran back to meet
the w