“In truth, I believe thee, fair coz, and I will keep thy secret faithfully.  It is safe with me; and I trust that all will end happily when the lost treasure shall return to the house of Trevlyn.”

And talking eagerly upon this theme, which was also to be kept secret from all the world besides, the cousins walked towards the house.  Cuthbert received a warm and hearty greeting from all his kinsfolks there, who were pleased that he should have kept his promise and have come to see them with the long days of early summer.

Sir Richard and his wife were both pleased with the fashion in which the youth had developed; his intelligence and information were now plainly apparent, and had taken a fresh impetus from the new surroundings in which he had found himself.  He could talk with discrimination and insight on all the leading topics of the day, had plainly lost much of his old rusticity of thought and speech, and had become an interesting and self-possessed youth.

But his errand was really to Philip, and to him he spoke in private of his sister’s story, and how she had promised to obey her father and to see him no more.  Cuthbert could assure the disappointed lover that this was no indication of coldness on Petronella’s part, but that it was done from a sense of filial duty, combined with a fear of some violence on her father’s part towards her lover should he be provoked too far.  Cuthbert was as certain as Philip could wish that Petronella’s heart was entirely his.  He had read the girl’s secret in the tones of her voice and in the shy glances of her soft eyes.  He told Philip, too, of the gold that was awaiting the girl in her uncle’s keeping, and added that he was certain sure that Martin Holt would be glad enough to give it over to his niece if she had a sturdy husband of the Reformed faith to take care of her and it.  His only fear was of its falling into the hands of the Papists, which thing would have been abhorrent to the grand sire whose legacy the money was.  That fear laid to rest, he would be glad to be rid of the charge, and to give over the gold to its rightful owner.

Philip’s heart was with Petronella, and he had not concerned himself as yet with any thoughts as to her poverty and his own somewhat impecunious position as his father’s heir, but with three sisters to be provided for out of the revenues of the impoverished estate.  He was man of the world enough to know that this dowry would do much to smooth his path when the time should come for making known his case to his parents, but for the moment his thoughts were all with the lonely girl shut up so relentlessly by her father.

“I will see Nicholas Trevlyn,” he said, with stern decision.  “Things have gone too far not to go further.  I will see him, and make formal application for his daughter’s hand.  He can but refuse me, and I shall tell him plainly that I decline to give her up at any word of his.  I can wait with patience till she is of age to judge for herself; but she is the woman of my choice, and her alone will I wed if she will have me.”