‘There,’ was his aside, as he sat down, ’I only hope I have not made him surly; poor fellow, I have put him in a predicament, but it could not be otherwise!’

Clara had tears in her eyes, but not like those she had shed at Cheveleigh; James gave Louis a look of heartfelt gratitude, bowed the lowest to the happy pair, and held up little Kitty that her imitative nod and sip might not be lost upon them.

Mrs. Beckett said, ‘Well, I never!  If ever a girl deserved it,’ choked, and flourished her white handkerchief; Frampton saluted like my Lord and Louis XIV. rolled into one; and Warren and Gervas privately agreed that they did not know what was coming of the world, since Marksedge poachers had only to go to foreign parts to be coined goold in the silver mines.  Mrs. Madison’s pretty face was all blushes, smiles, and tears.  Mr. Madison rose to reply with unexpected alacrity, and Louis was soon relieved from anxiety, at least, as far as regarded his eloquence, for he thought in the majestic Spanish idiom, and translated as he went—­

‘My Lords,’ he began, ’gentlemen and ladies and neighbours, my Lord Fitzjocelyn has done my wife and myself an honour as unlooked-for as undeserved; and the manner of the favour is such that we shall carry the grateful remembrance to the end of our lives.  He has been so condescending as to speak of such services as it was in our power to render; but he has passed over in silence that which gives him a claim to the utmost that I could place at his feet.  He will forgive me for speaking openly, for I cannot refrain from disburthening my mind, and letting you know, even more than you are at present aware of, what your Senor—­what your Lord truly is.  Most of you have known me but too well.  It is not ten years since I was a rude, untaught boy upon the heath, such as a large proportion of those present would deem beneath their notice:  Lord Fitzjocelyn did not think so.  His kindness of manner and encouraging words awakened in me new life and energy.  He gave me his time and his teaching, and, what was far more, he gave me his sympathy and his example.  It was these which gave vitality to lessons dimly understood, or which had fallen dead on my ears, when only heard in my irregular attendance at school.  But the work in me was tardy, and at first I requited his kindness with presumption, insubordination, and carelessness.  Then, when I had been dismissed, and when my wilful neglect had occasioned the accident of which the traces are still only too visible, then, did I not merit to be exposed and cast off for ever?  I knew it, and I fled, as if I could leave behind me my grief and my shame.  Little did I dare to guess that he was dealing with me as though I had been his own brother, and scrupulously concealing my share in the misfortune.  When I returned, sullen and overwhelmed, he alone—­yes! and while still suffering severely—­spoke a kind word to me, and exerted himself to rescue me from the utter ruin and degradation