t it--for that is what they call waste,
cutting down and selling the timber, and the oakbark, and burning the
willows, and other trees that are turned into charcoal. It is all _waste_,
and Dr. Bryerly is about to put a stop to it.'

'Has he got your carriage for you, Maud, and your horses?' asked Cousin
Monica, suddenly.

'They have not come yet, but in a few weeks, Dudley says, positively--'

Cousin Monica laughed a little and shook her head.

'Yes, Maud, the carriage and horses will always be coming in a few weeks,
till the time is over; and meanwhile the old travelling chariot and
post-horses will do very well;' and she laughed a little again.

'That's why the stile's pulled away at the paling, I suppose; and
Beauty--Meg Hawkes, that is--is put there to stop us going through; for I
often spied the smoke beyond the windmill,' observed Milly.

Cousin Monica listened with interest, and nodded silently.

I was very much shocked. It seemed to me quite incredible. I think Lady
Knollys read my amazement and my exalted estimate of the heinousness of the
procedure in my face, for she said--

'You know we can't quite condemn Silas till we have heard what he has to
say. He may have done it in ignorance; or, it is just possible, he may have
the right.'

'Quite true. He may have the right to cut down trees at Bartram-Haugh. At
all events, I am sure he thinks he has,' I echoed.

The fact was, that I would not avow to myself a suspicion of Uncle Silas.
Any falsehood there opened an abyss beneath my feet into which I dared not
look.

'And now, dear girls, good-night. You must be tired. We breakfast at a
quarter past nine--not too early for you, I know.'

And so saying, she kissed us, smiling, and was gone.

I was so unpleasantly occupied, for some time after her departure, with the
knaveries said to be practised among the dense cover of the Windmill Wood,
that I did not immediately recollect that we had omitted to ask her any
particulars about her guests.

'Who can Mary be?' asked Milly.

'Cousin Monica says she's engaged to be married, and I think I heard the
Doctor call her _Lady_ Mary, and I intended asking her ever so much about
her; but what she told us about cutting down the trees, and all that, quite
put it out of my head. We shall have time enough to-morrow, however, to ask
questions. I like her very much, I know.'

'And I think,' said Milly, 'it is to Mr. Carysbroke she's to be married.'

'Do you?' said