s partly your own fault, isn't it?--if you _will_
make such a secret of the thing? . . . Yet, I'm sure I don't blame
you. Living the solitary life you do must make it specially trying
to feel that every one is canvassing your affairs. For my part, I
said, 'If it _does_ come from Germany,' I said, 'you may be sure 'tis
through one of those lotteries.'" On a swift thought she added,
"But that tale is all nonsense, of course: because the Germans
wouldn't pay in guineas, would they?"

"'Guineas'?" repeated Nicky-Nan, as the solid earth seemed to fail
beneath his feet and his supporting stick.

Miss Oliver, grasping the advantage of his evident distress, decided
in a flash (1) that here, before her, stood the wreck of a
well-connected man, cleanly in person, not ill to look upon; and (2)
that she would a little longer withhold disclosure of the guinea.

"Well, I _heard_ it took the form of guineas, Mr Nanjivell. But of
course I don't wish to be inquisitive."

"That devil Pamphlett has been talkin'," muttered Nicky-Nan to
himself.

"I only suggest," Miss Oliver went on, "that if 'twas known--I don't
seek to know the amount: but if I had your authority to say that
'twas all in good coin of this realm--with my opportunities I might
hush up half this silly talk about your being a spy and in German
pay--"

"What? . . . ME, a German spy?" The words seemed fairly to strangle
him.

"It's a positive fact, I assure you. I mean it's a positive fact
_somebody_ has been putting that story about."

"If I knawed the critter, male or female--" Nicky-Nan gripped his stick.

Miss Oliver could not help admiring his demeanour, his manly
indignation. The man had fine features, too--a touch of ancestry.
She grew bolder.

"Well, I rather think I _do_ know the creature, as you put it-though
I am not going to tell you," she added almost archly. Then, of a
sudden, "Has Constable Rat-it-all been paying you any attention
lately?"

"Well . . . I'll be danged!"

Miss Oliver laughed pleasantly. "The fact is, Mr Nanjivell, you want
a woman's wit to warn you, as every man does in your position.
And just now it took me of a sudden, happening upon you in this way
and knowing how you were surrounded by evil tongues, that I'd cast
prudence to the winds and speak to you openly for your good, as a
neighbour. You don't think the worse of me, I hope?"

"Why, no, Miss Oliver. Contrariwise I ought to be--if you hadn'
taken me so sudden!"