ream, and his daughter's
ready courage, had suggested the idea of letting the boat drift, with
Cristel hidden in it. Two of the yacht's crew, hidden among the trees,
watched the progress of the boat until it rounded the promontory, and
struck the shore. There, the yacht's boat was waiting. The rocket was
fired to re-assure her father; and Cristel was rowed to the mouth of the
river, and safely received on board the yacht. Thus (with his good
brother's help) the miller had made the River his Guilty accomplice in
the abduction of his own child!

When I had read the correspondence, we spoke again of Cristel.

"To save time," Mrs. Stephen Toller said, "I will write to my husband
to-day, by a mounted messenger. He shall only tell Cristel that you have
come back to England, and you shall arrange to meet her in our grounds
when she returns. I am a childless woman, Mr. Roylake--and I love her as
I should have loved a daughter of my own. Where improvement (in external
matters only) has seemed to be possible, it has been my delight to
improve her. Your stepmother and Lady Rachel will acknowledge, even from
their point of view, that there is a mistress who is worthy of her
position at Trimley Deen."

When Cristel returned the next day, she found that her uncle had deserted
her, and suddenly discovered a man in the shrubbery. What that man said
and did, and what the result of it was, may be inferred if I relate a
remarkable event. Mrs. Roylake has retired from the domestic
superintendence of Trimley Deen.

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