but confusion of a pleasant and
bustling kind. Joshua brought news that the highwaymen had
retreated in disappointment and dudgeon, but, true to their
principles, without any attempt at taking vengeance upon the Cross
Way House. Sir Richard was striving to soothe the agitation of the
timid Dowsabel, and hearing of the absence of the mistress of the
house; whilst servants hurried to and fro, setting the table for
supper, and vying with each other to provide comforts for the weary
travellers, who had been through so much peril and hard riding.

Petronella sat beside Philip in a deep embrasure, and had eyes and
ears for him alone. Kate and Cherry, under the direction of Dyson,
bound up Lord Culverhouse's arm, and soon had the satisfaction of
seeing the colour come back into his face, and his closed eyes
slowly open.

When they did this they dwelt for some moments upon Kate's face in
a dreamy fashion, as though their owner thought himself still in
some sort of a dream; but when she raised his head and put a cup to
his lips, he seemed to awake with a start, and after thirstily
draining the contents of the vessel, he caught her hand,
exclaiming:

"Kate--my Kate!--is it truly thou?"

She gave a little cry of joy at hearing him speak in tones so like
his own. He pressed the hand he held, whilst she knelt beside him
and whispered softly in his ear:

"It is I, indeed, thy little wife. O Culverhouse--and I thought
that thou hadst but come hither to die!"

There was a catch in her voice that told how great had been the
strain of the past minutes--greater than he could know just then.
She found it hard to keep back the tears as she knelt beside him,
listening whilst he whispered to her of all that had been said
about that sudden marriage of theirs, and how that none would dare
to call him free of his plighted word.

"And so thou art in very truth my betrothed wife, sweet Kate," he
said, "and none may part us now. It was as I said when I bid thee
come and plight thy troth. It was a pledge too solemn to be broken.
My father and mother say so, and so does thy father. We may not be
able to wed just yet; but if what I hear be true, sure our day of
waiting need not be so very long."

The colour had come back into her face now; her eyes were sparkling
in their old fashion. She looked indeed the same "saucy Kate" that
he had known and loved ever since his early boyhood.

There were steps behind them, and Sir Richard emerged fr