damned, Bet--saving your presence!" said he, "I've led a
very dog's life----"

"My poor, poor boy!" she sighed, touching his thin cheek with gentle,
loving fingers which he immediately kissed; thereafter he fell to upon
the viands before him with renewed appetite and gusto.

"Egad, Bet," he mumbled, "this is better than a diet of raw turnips and
blackberries or eggs sucked warm from the nest----"

"O Charles, hath it been so bad as that?"

"Aye--and worse! Lord, Bet--lass, I've begged and thieved my way
hither from the Border. Heaven only knows how oft I've sat i' the
stocks for a ravished hen, been kicked and cuffed and stoned out o'
villages for a vagrant, consorted with rogues of all kinds, hidden in
barns, slept in hayricks and hedges, been abused by man, and stormed at
and buffeted by the elements and, on the whole--am the better for it.
Nay, sweet lass, no tears!"

Down went knife and fork with a clatter and his ragged sleeve was about
her. "No tears, Bet," said he consolingly, "damme, I'll not endure
'em!"

"But O my dear, to think what you have suffered and I--so careless,
while you, Charles, you----"

"Learned the meaning of life, Bet! Learned to--to be a man, for I do
protest the beggar is a better man than ever was his idle scatterbrain
lordship. A year ago when I had all and more than I needed, I was a
discontented fool a--a very ass, Bet. To-day, though I've lost all,
I've found--I've learned--Egad, I don't know just how to put it but
you--you get me, Bet?"

"I understand, dearest boy!"

"Y'see, Bet lass, hardship makes a man either a rogue or a--very man.
And, though I'm a beggar, I'm no rogue. 'Twas a great adventure, Bet,
a noble effort brought to red ruin by--ah well--'tis finished! I was
wounded, as I told you, and had to lie hid for weary weeks. When I
ventured abroad at last, 'twas to learn poor Derwentwater was executed
and Eversleigh too--poor old Dick! And the rest either in prison with
Nithsdale or scattered God knoweth where. So there was I, destitute
and with none to turn to of all my friends--for, as you know, 'tis
prison or death to shelter such as I, and so in my extremity I--I came
to you, Betty----"

"Thank God!" she whispered fervently, giving him a little squeeze.

"But only to beg money enough to carry me beyond seas, dearest!
To-night or to-morrow at latest I must be gone----"

"Pho--'tis preposterous, foolish boy! 'Twere madness, dear Charles! I
say you sh