he place was your
grandfather's, and he has sold it to me for L15. When your grandfather
returned from transportation his wife's hut became his; and his right to
it does not go over to anybody else till he is dead. It never belonged to
your father; and you can have no right to it. If you want to see the deed
of purchase, it is safe here, witnessed by my brother Thomas and Jones
the gamekeeper, and your grandfather's mark put to it. I would show it to
you; but I reckon, with all your learning, you would not make much out of
it.'

'Sir,' said Stephen, trembling, 'grandfather is quite simple and dark. He
couldn't understand that you were buying the place of him. Besides, he's
never had the money?'

'What do you mean, you young scoundrel?' cried the master. 'I gave it
into his own hands, and made him put it into his waistcoat pocket for
safety. Simple is he, and dark? He could attend his son's funeral four
miles off only a few months ago; and he can understand my niece Anne's
fine reading, which I cannot understand myself. Ask him for the three
five-pound notes I gave him, if you have not had them already.'

'How long ago is it?' inquired Stephen.

'You can't remember!' said the master, laughing: 'well, well, Jones left
you a keepsake at your garden wicket for you to remember the day by.'

Stephen's face flushed into a wrathful crimson, but he did not speak; and
in a minute or two the master said sharply,--

'Come, be off with you, if you've got nothing else to say.'

'I have got something else to say,' answered Stephen, walking up to the
table and looking steadily into his master's face. 'God sees both of us;
and He knows you have no right to the place, and I have. I believe some
day we'll go back again, though you have pulled the old house down to the
ground. I don't want to make God angry with _me_. But the Bible says He
seeth in secret, and He will reward us openly.'

The master shrank and turned pale before the keen, composed gaze of the
boy and his manly bearing; but Stephen's heart began to fail him, and,
with trembling limbs and eyes that could scarcely see, he made his way
out of the room, and out of the house, down to the end of the shrubbery.
There he could bear up no longer, and he sat down under the laurels,
shivering with a feeling of despair. The worst was come upon him now, and
he saw no helper.

'My poor boy,' said Miss Anne's gentle voice, and he felt her hand laid
softly on his shoulder. 'My poo