and growing in the mistress's heart—
growing and growing till it is now the third year
since the marriage, and there is no hope yet
of a child; and once more the sea-captain gets
tired on the land, and goes off again for his
cruises—long cruises, this time; away, away,
away, at the other end of the world."

Here Uncle Joseph paused once more,
apparently hesitating a little about how he
should go on with the narrative. His mind
seemed to be soon relieved of its doubts, but
his face saddened, and his tones sank lower,
when he addressed Rosamond again.

"I must, if you please, go away from the
mistress now," he said, "and get back to
Sarah, my niece, and say one word also of a
mining man, with the Cornish name of Polwheal.
This was a young man that worked well and
got good wage, and kept a good character.
He lived with his mother in the little village
that is near the ancient house; and, seeing
Sarah from time to time, took much fancy to
her, and she to him. So the end came that
the marriage-promise was between them
given and taken; as it happened, about the
time when the sea-captain was back after his
first cruises, and just when he was thinking
of going away in a ship again. Against the
marriage-promise nor he nor the lady his wife
had a word to object, for the miner,
Polwheal, had good wage and kept a good
character. Only the mistress said that the loss
of Sarah would be sad to her—very sad; and
Sarah answered that there was yet no hurry
to part. So the weeks go on, and the
sea-captain sails away again for his long cruises;
and about the same time also the mistress
finds out that Sarah frets and looks not like
herself, and that the miner, Polwheal, he
larks here and lurks there, round about the
house; and she says to herself, ' So! so! Am
I standing too much in the way of this
marriage? For Sarah's sake, that shall not be! '
And she calls for them both one evening, and
talks to them kindly, and sends away to put
up the bauns next morning the young man
Polwheal. That night, it is his turn to go
down into the Porthgenna mine, and work
after the hours of the day. With his heart all
light, down into that dark he goes. When
he rises to the world again, it is the dead
body of him that is drawn up—the dead body,
with all the young life, by the fall of a rock,
crushed out in a moment. The news flies
here; the news flies there. With no break,
with no warning, with no comfort near, it
comes on a sudden to Sarah, my niece.
When, to her sweetheart that evening she
had said good-bye, she was a young, pretty
girl; when six little weeks after, she, from
the sick-bed where the shock threw her, got
up,—all her youth was gone, all her hair was
grey, and in her eyes the fright-look was
fixed that has never left them since."

The simple words drew the picture of the
miner's death, and of all that followed it,
with a startling distinctness - with a fearful
reality. Rosamond shuddered and looked at
her husband. " Oh, Lenny! " she murmured,
"the first news of your blindness was a sore
trial to me—but what was it to this !"

"Pity her! " said the old man. " Pity her
for what she suffered then! Pity her for
what came after, that was worse! Yet five,
six, seven weeks pass, after the death of the
mining-man, and Sarah, in the body suffers less,
but in the mind suffers more. The mistress,
who is kind and good to her as any sister could
be, finds out, little by little, something in her
face which is not the pain-look, not the
fright-look, not the grief-look; something
which the eyes can see but which the tongue
cannot put into words. She looks and thinks,
looks and thinks, till there steals into her mind
a doubt which makes her tremble at herself,
which drives her straight forward into
Sarah's room, which sets her eyes searching
through and through Sarah to her inmost
heart. ' There is something on your mind
besides your grief for the dead and gone,'
she says, and catches Sarah by both the
arms before she can turn away, and looks
her in the face, front to front, with curious
eyes that search and suspect steadily. ' The
miner-man, Polwheal,' she says; ' my mind
misgives me about the miner-man,
Polwheal. Sarah! I have been more friend to
you than mistress. As your friend I ask you,
now tell me all the truth? ' The question
waits; but no word of answer! only Sarah
struggles to get away, and the mistress
holds her tighter yet, and goes on and
says, 'I know that the marriage-promise
passed between you and miner Polwheal;
I know that if ever there was truth in
man, there was truth in him; I know that
he went out from this place to put the banns
up, for you and for him, in the church. Have
secrets from all the world besides, Sarah, but
have none from me. Tell me, this minute, tell
me the truth! Of all the lost creatures
in this big, wide world, are you——? ' Before
she can say the words that are next to
come, Sarah falls on her knees, and cries out
suddenly to be let go away to hide and die,
and be heard of no more. That was all the
answer she gave. It was enough for the
truth, then; it is enough for the truth now."

He sighed bitterly, and ceased speaking for
a little while. No voice broke the reverent
silence that followed his last words. The one
living sound that stirred in the stillness of the
room, was the light breathing of the child as
he lay asleep in his mother's arms.

"That was all the answer," repeated the
old man, " and the mistress who heard it, says
nothing for some time after, but still looks
straight forward into Sarah's face, and grows
paler and paler the longer she looks—paler
and paler, till on a sudden she starts, and at
one flash the red flies back into her face.
' No,' she says, whispering and looking at the
door, ' once your friend, Sarah, always your
friend. Stay in this house, keep your own