A Perilous Secret

, and anxious to propitiate his father, but well aware that

e butler's pantry. Here he was safe, and knew it; a faithful old butler of the anti

a good supper, and good advice: "Better not ta

rs rather a bad one, and would now have been a hard master if the Colonel had not been too great a Tartar to

n would be glad to speak t

Colonel, though by old

t ye

d. It is your business

when I am made safe th

of a welcome-good,

a welcome. Why, he is

d that he deser

pture is the rule of life for men of

d if he takes the tone you do, he will get turned out of the

onate respect, which disarmed the words of their true meaning. He added, hanging

d of?" asked the

and swearing at

" cried the Colonel-"a

wearing, inde

. "Come, Colonel, be a father

n a fellow shot for, and he has lef

ar his story before I condemn him. Why, he's only nineteen and four months, come M

that probable

t was after s

at a goo

(the Colonel was betrayed into winking). "From sixteen

Colonel, dryly, "you can te

say that

ourself. I have known you presume

ume a bit; but then" (raising his head proudly) "they care for their masters, young and old. New serva

anged for building churches. Come, beat a retreat. I

n, "I've took

nst the mantel-piece; but he left it directly and stood

t, "How handsome the dog is!" and was proud of him secretly, only he would

nt, sir," said th

lly the young one, to various delicacies from the side table. When he had stuffed them pretty well, he retired so

first remark-"Wh

me from?" inquired Colon

etter," s

the Colonel, "where

entioned

l. "I made sure you had been enjoy

ldn't have st

said Colonel Clifford.

ought her al

aid Walter, off hi

decoyed you from y

me from here, sir

lking about, th

y, Lucy

is Lucy M

ith, and she deceived me nicely

came home

ng when I have learned to despise her. I came home to apologize, and to place mysel

Now out with it. What did you go aw

am afraid I sh

I've given you my hand.

itated, but at last hit

on House; but one fine day the supply stopped, and I uttered a small howl to my nurs

Clifford

ed, modestly

I am Walter Clifford, and this belongs to my father.' 'Well,' said the man, 'I've heerd it did belong to Colonel Clifford onst, but now it belongs to Muster Mills; so you must fish in your own water, young gentleman, and leave

me little air of compunction: "They have plucked my feathers deucedly, that's a fact. Hang that fellow S

re too poor to keep, and I found these wealthy purch

nel Clifford: "it is as much as a gentle

bought one of these estates, tallow a

m all three!" ro

trade, and I had better go into it. I didn't think you would consent to that. I wasn't

ne in three months?"

to suspect me of dishonesty; so I snapped my fingers at them all, and here I am. But," said the poor young fellow, "I do wish, fathe

d started up in

ou were born, and everybody was born! Those

s," said Walter. "I neve

ted the Colonel. "No, nor you never will. I've b

any such trout, and no

; and he improves on the Scotch poet-he doesn't print 'em. No, he accumulates them cannily until he is twenty, but never says a word. He loads his gun up to the

ared a quarrel, and to interrupt it, put

r? Can I do anyth

o to th

as suggested-a mere lateral mo

er, half-reproachfully, "it

s admission with a more ill-used tone than ever). "It's the race-horses. Ring the bell. What sa

he bell-rope, and pulled it all down

answered the bell like lightning; he quite forgot that the bell must

rd, John; I saw hi

Walter, who had a filial heart, felt very uneasy, and said, timidly,

a man who flies from the truth, whether it comes from young lip

Colonel, in the very same tone he was speaking in, "pu

t Nottingham, and the six-year-old gelding at a handicap at Ch

with their

e train

im his

the j

out of the premises before he poisons the lot. Keep

e them to the plac

auction here, and sel

ks of account to th

blue, and Walter remonstra

can cipher

is the best

been in trad

y,

. A gentleman of the nineteenth century, sharpened by trade, can easily do that. Sell Clifford Hall? I'd rather live

e petty frauds-the swindles of agency-a term which, to be sure, is derived from the Latin

e estate at five per cent., only four per cent. of which was really fingered by the mortgagee; the balance went to a go-betwee

steward at a liberal salary; and so Walter Clifford found em