quite so bad as that, Stephen."

"Hope on, sweet heart, and farewell. Here's Mother Haldane on thorns to
get rid of me--that I can see. Now, Mother, what shall I pay you for
your help, for right good it has been?"

Haldane laid her hand on Stephen's, which was beginning to unfasten his
purse--a bag carried on the left side, under the girdle.

"Pay me," she said, "in care for Ermine."

"There's plenty of that coin," answered Stephen, smiling, as he withdrew
his hand. "You'll look to your half of the bargain, Mother, and trust
me to remember mine."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. The ordinary fire at this time was of wood. Charcoal, the
superior class of fuel, cost from 5 shillings to 10 shillings per ton
(modern value from six to twelve guineas).

CHAPTER NINE.

THE SECRET THAT WAS NOT TOLD.

"Thine eye is on Thy wandering sheep;
Thou knowest where they are, and Thou wilt keep
And bring them home."

Hetty Bowman.

"So you've really come back at last! Well, I did wonder what you'd gone
after! Such lots of folks have asked me--old Turguia, and Franna, and
Aunt Isel, and Derette--leastwise Leuesa--and ever such a lot: and I
couldn't tell ne'er a one of them a single word about it."

Anania spoke in the tone of an injured woman, defrauded of her rights by
the malice prepense of Stephen.

"Well," said Stephen calmly, "you may tell them all that I went after my
own business; and if any of them thinks that's what a man shouldn't do,
she can come and tell me so."

"Well, to be sure! But what business could you have to carry you out of
the town for such a time, and nobody to know a word about it? Tell me
that, if you please."

"Don't you tell her nought!" said Osbert in the chimney-corner. "If you
went to buy a new coat, she'll want to know where the money was minted,
and who sheared the sheep."

"I'll finish my pie first, I think," answered Stephen, "for I am rather
too hungry for talk; and I dare say she'll take no harm by that."

He added, in mental reservation,--"And meantime I can be thinking what
to say."

"Oh, _you_ never want to know nought!" exclaimed Anania derisively.
"Turguia, she said you were gone after rabbits--as if any man in his
senses would do that in the snow: and Aunt Isel thought you were off on
a holiday; and Franna was certain sure you were gone a-courting."

Stephen laughed to himself, but made no other repl