a home not to
be urged on him), and means to take his time of coming, if he comes at
all?

"Often too I wonder at the odds of fortune, which made me (helpless as
I am, and fond of peace and reading) the heiress of this mad domain, the
sanctuary of unholiness. It is not likely that I shall have much power
of authority; and yet the Counsellor creeps up to be my Lord of the
Treasury; and his son aspires to my hand, as of a Royal alliance. Well,
'honour among thieves,' they say; and mine is the first honour: although
among decent folk perhaps, honesty is better.

"We should not be so quiet here, and safe from interruption but that I
have begged one privilege rather than commanded it. This was that the
lower end, just this narrowing of the valley, where it is most hard to
come at, might be looked upon as mine, except for purposes of guard.
Therefore none beside the sentries ever trespass on me here, unless it
be my grandfather, or the Counsellor or Carver.

"By your face, Master Ridd, I see that you have heard of Carver Doone.
For strength and courage and resource he bears the first repute among
us, as might well be expected from the son of the Counsellor. But he
differs from his father, in being very hot and savage, and quite free
from argument. The Counsellor, who is my uncle, gives his son the best
advice; commending all the virtues, with eloquence and wisdom; yet
himself abstaining from them accurately and impartially.

"You must be tired of this story, and the time I take to think, and
the weakness of my telling; but my life from day to day shows so little
variance. Among the riders there is none whose safe return I watch
for--I mean none more than other--and indeed there seems no risk, all
are now so feared of us. Neither of the old men is there whom I
can revere or love (except alone my grandfather, whom I love with
trembling): neither of the women any whom I like to deal with, unless it
be a little maiden whom I saved from starving.

[Illustration: 165.jpg Gwenny Carfax]

"A little Cornish girl she is, and shaped in western manner, not so very
much less in width than if you take her lengthwise. Her father seems to
have been a miner, a Cornishman (as she declares) of more than average
excellence, and better than any two men to be found in Devonshire, or
any four in Somerset. Very few things can have been beyond his power of
performance, and yet he left his daughter to starve upon a peat-rick.
She does not know