"I was a monster to think of it, Rotha; look in my face, my girl, and
say you forgive me."

"I could have followed you over the world, Willy, and looked for no
better fortune. I could have trusted to you, and loved you, though we
had no covering but the skies above us."

"Don't kill me with remorse, Rotha; don't heap coals of fire on my
head. Look up and smile but once, my darling."

Rotha lifted her tear-dimmed eyes to the eyes of her lover, and Willy
stooped to kiss her trembling lips. At that instant an impulse took
hold of him which he was unable to resist, and words that he struggled
to suppress forced their own utterance.

"Great God!" he cried, and drew back his head with a quick recoil,
"how like your father you are!"




CHAPTER XXIV.

TREASON OR MURDER.


The night was dark that followed. It had been a true Cumbrian day in
winter. The leaden sky that hung low and dense had been relieved only
by the white rolling mists that capped the fells and swept at