ave felt deeply too. No, Mr.
Roylake, she is not engaged to be married--and she will never be married,
unless you forgive her. Ah, you forgive her because you love her! She
thought of writing to tell you her motives, when she visited her father's
grave on our return to England. But I was unable to obtain your address.
Perhaps, I may speak for her now?"

I knew how Lady Rachel's interference had appealed to Cristel's sense of
duty and sense of self-respect; I had heard from her own lips that she
distrusted herself, if she allowed me to press her. But she had
successfully concealed from me the terror with which she regarded her
rejected lover, and the influence over her which her father had
exercised. Always mindful of his own interests, the miller knew that he
would be the person blamed if he allowed his daughter to marry me. "They
will say I did it, with an eye to my son-in-law's money; and gentlefolks
may ruin a man who lives by selling flour." That was how he expressed
himself in a letter to his brother.

The whole of the correspondence was shown to me by Mrs. Stephen Toller.

After alluding to his wealthy brother's desire that he should retire from
business, the miller continued as follows:

"What you are ready to do for me, I want you to do for Cristy. She is in
danger, in more ways than one, and I am obliged to get her away from my
house as if I was a smuggler, and my girl contraband goods. I am a bad
hand at writing, so I leave Cristy to tell you the particulars. Will you
receive her, brother Stephen? and take care of her? and do it as soon as
possible?"

Mr. Stephen Toller's cordial reply mentioned that his vessel was ready to
sail, and would pass the mouth of The Loke on her southward voyage. His
brother caught at the idea thus suggested.

I have alluded to Giles Toller's sly look to his lodger, when I returned
the manuscript of the confession. The old man's unscrupulous curiosity
had already applied a second key to the cupboard in the lodger's room.
There he had found the "criminal stories" mentioned in the
journal--including the story of abduction referred to by Lady Rachel.
This gave him the very idea which his lodger had already relied on for
carrying Cristel away by the river (under the influence, of course, of a
soporific drug), while her father was keeping watch on the road. The
secreting of the oars with this purpose in view, had failed as a measure
of security. The miller's knowledge of the st