sternly--

"Why are you downstairs at this time of the night, Mrs Lloyd?"

"The morning you mean, sir," said the housekeeper. "What am I down
for?" she continued, angrily; "to see that the house is safe--that
there's no fire left about--that doors are fastened, so that the house
I've watched over all these years isn't destroyed by carelessness, and
all going to rack and ruin."

Trevor jumped up with an angry exclamation on his lips; but he checked
it, and then spoke, quite calmly--

"Mrs Lloyd, I should be perfectly justified in speaking to you perhaps
in a way in which you have never been spoken to before."

"Pray do, then, Master--sir," jerked out Mrs Lloyd, looking white with
anger.

"In half a dozen things during the past evening you have wilfully
disobeyed my orders. Why was this?"

"To protect your interests and property," exclaimed the housekeeper.

"Giving me credit for not knowing my own mind, and making me look absurd
in the eyes of my friends."

"I didn't mean to do anything of the kind, sir," said Mrs Lloyd,
stoutly.

"I'll grant that; and that you did it through ignorance," said Trevor.

"I don't want to see the place I've taken care of for years go to ruin,"
said Mrs Lloyd.

"I'll grant that too," said Trevor, "and that you and your husband have
been most faithful servants, and are ready at any time to give an
account of your stewardship. I feel your zeal in my interests, but you
must learn to see, Mrs Lloyd, that you can carry it too far. I
daresay, too, that for all these years you and your husband have felt
like mistress and master of the house, and that it seems hard to give up
to the new rule, and to render the obedience that I shall exact; but,
Mrs Lloyd, you are a woman of sound common sense, and you must see that
your conduct to me has been anything but what it should be."

"I've never had a thought but for your benefit!" exclaimed Mrs Lloyd.

"I believe it, Mrs Lloyd--I know it; but tell me frankly that you feel
you have erred, and no more shall be said."

Mrs Lloyd gave a gulp, and stood watching the fine, well-built man
before her.

"It grieves me, I assure you, to have to speak as I do, Mrs Lloyd,"
continued Trevor; "but you must see that things are altered now."

"And that you forget all the past, Master Dick," cried Mrs Lloyd, with
a wild sob, "and that those who have done everything for you may now be
turned out of the house in their old age and go and beg their bre