country crossroads to be aroused from his slumbers at midnight by guests seeking the

he heard the sound of the old brass knocker on

t, until a second and third peal brought him

r a few minutes later and found a coach standing there and

the old innkeeper, holding a flaring candle h

could be made?" asked one of th

ve my daughter Betsy's, she be

f me anywhere," returned the speaker. "I could doze in a chair in th

A moment later, the lovely girl, still unconscious, wa

woman?" gasped the innkeeper, his

men briefly, adding: "If you will see that a fire is lighted

ould say Jack Robinson," and he trotted off briskly on his double mission of rousing his wife to look after the girl and his hired help to

to tell it the good house

beheld the lovely face, white as chiseled marble, framed in its cloud of golden hair.

ranger, who stood over by the fireplac

rried?" exclaimed the woman. "Why, she

liberately turned his back on th

at the room above was ready, and that t

er figure, bore her up the narrow rickety stairway,

sant dreams," replied Hallor

urden to see that everything was made comfortable,

g else I can do f

lled sharply: "Yes, I think there is something else that would add to my comfort,

man he

or it," said the

e pretty strict with us hereabouts. I generally let a man have it wh

e other. "Here's a five-dollar note for a

. The man laughed to see how quickly he trotted off

else, sir?

We're not of the kind that rise with the sun. Nine o'clock will answer. And

lood followin' the knife; crisp potatoes, a plate of buckwheat cakes, with butter as is butter, and honey that's the r

n impatient wave of his white hand. "I never l

e somethin' kind a delicate like-a

lick and turned the key in the lock, and for the first time he was alone with the girl he had forced so dastardly into the cruellest of marriages. He ha

r his breath. "Ye gods! what a lucky dog I am after all!" and

oken sigh stirred th

" he muttered. "The old lady's t

notice how unusually b

old me in the same favor. But I'll stand none of her airs. I'll show her right from the start that I'm the boss, and see how that w

to the mantel, where the innkeeper h

ank it at a single swallow. This was

oneself up for a scene like this,"

set his heart in a glow. He laughed aloud. In that moment h

lord and master, her wedded husband. She would be

nd waited results, and each instant he sat there the fumes of

laughing devi

tions of both

cowl of fiercen

fled and mercy

sciousness would return to the g

knew every tone of his cousin's voice so perfectly that he would have little difficulty in imitating that. The more c

l, to have as beautiful a bride a

my being madly in love with her," he muse

the logs in the grate, and with the heat the fumes of the brandy rose into his brain, and with it his color heightened, his cheeks and lips were flushed and his eyes scintillating.

ps, he crossed the room and stood by the couch, looking down eagerly into the beautiful white face

lical smile. At that moment Faynie's violet