"Of course you will put them up?" he asked his father.
"Of course!" responded the Squire; "but what do you think of the fire? Isn't it terrible?"
"Terrible? How so? Fires must occur sometimes!"
"Of course, but this is the work of an incendiary!"
"Yes, Dad, it certainly looks like it; but why should you be so alarmed about it? The Marquis is well insured, and, if you are as frightened of fire as you are of burglars, why, it's hardly likely that two blazes should occur in the same district within, well, a dozen years."
Laurence said this to pacify his father, who was almost trembling, with either fear or horror. But he little expected the Squire's response—
"I was thinking how narrowly we escaped, and," the old man muttered, half aloud, as he moved away, "how desperately this wretch is sealing my doom!"