e
University. He was even put into gaol for a night, I believe--a Lightfoot
in a common dirty gaol! Well, well, as I said before, all we can do now is
to expect the worst."

"Oh, is that all?" cried Betty, and the leaping of her heart told her the
horror of her dim foreboding. She rose to her feet and smiled brightly down
upon the astonished old lady.

"I don't know what more you want," replied Mrs. Lightfoot, tartly. "If he
ever gets clean again after a whole night in a common gaol, I must say I
don't see how he'll manage it. But if you aren't satisfied I can only tell
you that the affair was all about some bar-room wench, and that the papers
will be full of it. Not that the boy was anything but foolish," she added
hastily. "I'll do him the justice to admit that he's more of a fool than a
villain--and I hardly know whether it's a compliment that I'm paying him or
not. He got some quixotic notion into his head that Harry Maupin insulted
the girl in his presence, and he called him to account for it. As if the
honour of a barkeeper's daughter was the concern of any gentleman!"

"Oh!" cried Betty, and caught her breath. The word went out of her in a
sudden burst of joy, but the joy was so sharp that a moment afterwards she
hid her wet face in the bedclothes and sobbed softly to herself.

"I don't think Mr. Lightfoot would have taken it so hard but for Virginia,"
said the old lady, with her keen eyes on the girl. "You know he has always
wanted to bring Dan and Virginia together, and he seems to think that the
boy has been dishonourable about it."

"But Virginia doesn't care--she doesn't care," protested Betty.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it," returned Mrs. Lightfoot, relieved, "and I hope
the foolish boy will stay away long enough for his grandfather to cool off.
Mr. Lightfoot is a high-tempered man, my child. I've spent fifty years in
keeping him at peace with the world. There now, run down and cheer him up."

She lay back among her pillows, and Betty leaned over and kissed her with
cold lips before she dried her eyes and went downstairs to find the Major.

With the first glance at his face she saw that Dan's cause was hopeless for
the hour, and she set herself, with a cheerful countenance, to a discussion
of the trivial happenings of the day. She talked pleasantly of the rector's
sermon, of the morning reading with Mrs. Lightfoot, and of a great hawk
that had appeared suddenly in the air and raised an outcry among the