plan; but the fear of working a great wrong in driving him from the good
influences to which he was subjected at Woodville, by doing right, and
confessing her error, was rather comforting, though it did not meet the
wants of her case.

In season for dinner, she entered the house with her hand full of wild
flowers, which grew only in the Glen. In the hall she met Mrs. Green,
the housekeeper, who looked at her flushed face, and then at the flowers
in her hand.

"We have been wondering where you were, all the forenoon," said Mrs.
Green. "I see you have been to the Glen by the flowers you have in your
hand. Did you know the boat-house was burned up?"

"I saw the smoke of it," replied Fanny.

"It is the strangest thing that ever happened. No one can tell how it
took fire."

Fanny made no reply, and the housekeeper hastened away to attend to her
duties. The poor girl was suffering all the tortures of remorse which a
wrong act can awaken, and she went up to her room with the feeling that
she did not wish to see another soul for a month.

Half an hour later, Noddy Newman presented himself at the great house,
laden with swamp pinks, whose fragrance filled the air, and seemed to
explain where he had been all the forenoon. With no little flourish, he
requested Mrs. Green to put them in the vases for Bertha's room; for his
young mistress was very fond of the sweet blossoms. He appeared to be
entirely satisfied with himself; and, with a branch of the pink in his
hand, he left the house, and walked towards the servants' quarters,
where, at his dinner, he met Ben, the boatman.

CHAPTER IV.

NODDY'S CONFESSION.

The old boatman never did any thing as other people did it; and though
Noddy had put on the best face he could assume to meet the shock of the
accusation which he was confident would be brought against him, Ben said
not a word about the boat-house. He did not seem to be aware that it had
been burned. He ate his dinner in his usual cheerful frame of mind, and
talked of swamp pinks, suggested by the branch which the young reprobate
had brought into the servants' hall.

Noddy was more perplexed than he had been before that day. Why didn't
the old man "pitch into him," and accuse him of kindling the fire? Why
didn't he get angry, as he did sometimes, and call him a young vagabond,
and threaten to horsewhip him? Ben talked of the pinks, of the weather,
the crops, and the latest news; but he did not say a word ab