rhaps in the case of my daughter Bell, been
a forgiving man. Even now I cherish no enmity against those whose
machinations have caused me to be suspected.

"It was about this time, when the first-planted lilies were beginning
to sprout for the third season, that Jeremy, nosing, as usual, here and
there, discovered the ancient underground rooms across the drawbridge.
Immediately I saw the use they would be to us. Having been well
brought up myself, I had always regretted the necessity of sending so
many, mostly careless and godless men, to their account unwarned and
unprepared. Such of them as could be induced to disgorge further sums
of money besides those carried on their bodies might at least have some
space for reflection and repentance. What I did not foresee was that
the Orrins, with their low, mad-folks' cunning, would make use of these
nests of chambers and hiding-places for their own ends, and thereby
endanger everything which I had so wisely and so laboriously thought
out.

"But for all that it was, as I have said, the beginning of the evil
days.

"And as usual it was owing to my own carelessness. I have enough
common sense to know that, nine times out of ten, men have themselves
to thank for the misfortunes which befall them. It is only the born
fool who goes from house to house and from friend to friend maundering
about ill luck and an unkind Providence. Good luck, at least, is
generally only the art of looking a good way ahead.

"I was away in Edinburgh, for the almanac told us that we were
approaching the date of the Bewick Wakes. Jeremy was to make the
acquaintance of a certain Lammermuir farmer with a well lined
pocket-book. The lily bed, under which he was to lie, would just have
made out Miss Aphra's pattern neatly--a thing concerning which she was
most particular. I will not give his name; if this falls into the
hands of a worthy successor he may one day scent the 'shot' out for
himself. He speaks broad Lammermuir, wears glasses hooked round his
ears, like a college professor, and generally has cut himself while
shaving in more than one place. But at any rate he had a respite for
the time being.

"For, without my knowledge, and quite apart from all my well-ordered
designs, Jeremy in a mad, fierce fit fell suddenly upon the mail
carrier betwixt Breckonside and Bewick. Very early in the morning it
was done, and the place unsuitable and quite unsafe, being close by the
bailiff's cottag