Again the suitor hesitated before saying, with a suggestion of glibness:  “Miss Meredith, every ounce of blame ye put upon my conduct I accept honestly and regretfully, but did ye but know all, I think ye would pity rather than judge me in that heart which seems open to every one but me.  From the day my father died in the debtor’s prison and I was thrown a penniless boy of twelve upon the world, it has been one long fight to keep head above water, till I got this appointment.  The gentlemen of the army have told ye that I was a government spy, I doubt not.  I wonder what they would have been in my straits!  Think ye any man is spy by choice?  Am I worse than the men who hired me to do the work, and who gained praise and rewards, even to the blue ribbon, by the information I had got for them, while only scorn and shame was my portion?  Think ye a life given to indirection and worming, to prying and scheming, is one of self-choice?  Hitherto I have done the dirty work of ministers,—­ay, of kings; but from the day I leave this country, that is over and done with for ever, and their once tool, now rich, will take his place among the very best of England’s peers, for money will buy a man anything in London nowadays.  ’T is not alone that I love ye nigh to desperation that I beg your love; ’t is that your love will help to make me the honest-living man I ambition to be.  But grant the longing of my life, and I’ll pledge ye happiness.  Ye shall write your own marriage settlement, a house, carriages, jewels—­”

“Indeed, Lord Clowes, even were my feelings less strong, you ask for what is now impossible.”

“Because your father, with a short-sightedness that is wellnigh criminal, has tied ye to this fellow!  Can’t ye perceive that the greatest service ye can render him will be to relieve him of the promise he has not the courage to end?  In a six-months he’ll bless ye for the deed, if ye will but do it.”

Almost as if he had come to protect his rights, the voice of Major Hennion broke in upon them.  “Everywhere have I sought you for upwards of an hour,” he said, as he hurried toward them, “and began to fear that some evil had befallen you.”  He caught Janice’s hand eagerly and kissed it.

“But when did you arrive?” exclaimed the girl.

“The legions were landed at Hampton Road this morning and reached camp an hour gone,” explained the major.  Still retaining her hand, he turned to Clowes and said, “If I understood you aright, my Lord, you told me you knew not where Miss Meredith was to be found?”

“And Miss Meredith will bear me out in the statement, sir, though I am quite willing that my word should stand by itself,” retorted the commissary, tartly.  “Nor am I in the habit of having it questioned by colonial striplings,” he added insultingly.

“Nor am I—­” began Philemon, heatedly; but Janice checked him by laying her free hand on his arm.

“’T is naught to take umbrage at, Phil,” she said dissuadingly, “and do not by quarrelling over a foolish nothing spoil my pleasure in seeing you.”