, the sort of
idea that proves itself. Your hero you are in such a hurry to betray can
be nobody but the mysterious lodger in Widow Shanks' dimity-parlour, as
she calls it; and Jenny has told me all she knows about him, which is
a great deal less than she ought to know. I meant to have told you, but
you are so grand in your lofty contempt of what you call gossip, but
which I call good neighbourly intercourse! You know that he is Mr. Caryl
Carne, of course. Everybody knows that, and there the knowledge seems to
terminate. Even the Twemlows, his own aunt and uncle, are scarcely ever
favoured with his company; and I, who am always on the beach, or in the
village, have never had the honour of beholding him, until--until it
came to this"--here she imitated with her lips the spluttering of the
fuse so well that her sister could not keep from laughing. "He never
goes out, and he never asks questions, any more than he answers them,
and he never cares to hear what fish they have caught, or anything else,
about anybody. He never eats or drinks, and he never says a word about
the flowers they put upon his table; and what he does all day long
nobody knows, except that he has a lot of books with him. Widow Shanks,
who has the best right to know all about him, has made up her mind that
his head has been turned by the troubles of his family, except for
his going without dinner, which no lunatic ever does, according to her
knowledge. And he seems to have got 'Butter Cheeseman,' as they call
him, entirely at his beck and call. He leaves his black horse there
every morning, and rides home at night to his ancestral ruins. There,
now, you know as much as I do."

"There is mischief at the bottom of all this," said Faith; "in these
dangerous times, it must not be neglected. We are bound, as you say,
to consider his wishes, after all that he has done for us. But the
tale about us will be over the place in a few hours, at the latest. The
gunners will have known where their bad shot fell, and perhaps they will
have seen us with their glasses. How will it be possible to keep this
affair from gossip?"

"They may have seen us, without seeing him at all, on account of the
smoke that came afterwards. At any rate, let us say nothing about it
until we hear what other people say. The shell will be washed away
or buried in the sand, for it fell upon the shingle, and then rolled
towards the sea; and there need be no fuss unless we choose to make it,
an