t so sure of that. I think I could tell any lie, to have
you, darling, all my own."

"Yes. And perhaps it might be right. To other people besides us two.
But you could not do it to me, John. You never could do it to me,
you know." Before I quite perceived my way to the bottom of the
distinction--although beyond doubt a valid one--Gwenny came back with a
leathern bag, and tossed it upon the table. Not a word did she vouchsafe
to us; but stood there, looking injured.

"Go, and get your letters, John," said Lorna very gravely; "or at least
your mother's letters, made of messages to you. As for Gwenny, she shall
go before Lord Justice Jeffreys." I knew that Lorna meant it not; but
thought that the girl deserved a frightening; as indeed she did. But we
both mistook the courage of this child of Cornwall. She stepped upon a
little round thing, in the nature of a stool, such as I never had seen
before, and thus delivered her sentiments.

"And you may take me, if you please, before the great Lord Jeffreys. I
have done no more than duty, though I did it crookedly, and told a heap
of lies, for your sake. And pretty gratitude I gets."

"Much gratitude you have shown," replied Lorna, "to Master Ridd, for all
his kindness and his goodness to you. Who was it that went down, at the
peril of his life, and brought your father to you, when you had lost him
for months and months? Who was it? Answer me, Gwenny?"

"Girt Jan Ridd," said the handmaid, very sulkily.

"What made you treat me so, little Gwenny?" I asked, for Lorna would not
ask lest the reply should vex me.

"Because 'ee be'est below her so. Her shanna' have a poor farmering
chap, not even if her were a Carnishman. All her land, and all her
birth--and who be you, I'd like to know?"

"Gwenny, you may go," said Lorna, reddening with quiet anger; "and
remember that you come not near me for the next three days. It is the
only way to punish her," she continued to me, when the maid was gone, in
a storm of sobbing and weeping. "Now, for the next three days, she will
scarcely touch a morsel of food, and scarcely do a thing but cry. Make
up your mind to one thing, John; if you mean to take me, for better for
worse, you will have to take Gwenny with me.

"I would take you with fifty Gwennies," said I, "although every one
of them hated me, which I do not believe this little maid does, in the
bottom of her heart."

"No one can possibly hate you, John," she answered very softly; an