"Where? How?"
"Oh, Mrs. Mason, I must tell you, or you will not let me see him. They will try to make out that the young master shot my father."
"They? Who? I should like to meet the man who dares say it, face to face with me."
Ruth shuddered. She had met the man, and his evil smile haunted her.
"It may be that it is only a threat," she said; "but it frightened us, and made my father worse."
"But he knows—surely he knows? What does your father say?"
"The man's rude talk threw him into a fever. He was quite wild, and tried to get up and dress himself, that he might come and see Wa—, the young master, at once."
"Why, the man was crazy," exclaimed Mrs. Mason.
"He seemed like it. I could not keep him in bed, and only pacified him, by promising to come myself. You see now why it is that I must speak with Mr. Walton."
"Yes, I see," observed the housekeeper, now quite bewildered. "But had you not better go to Sir Noel?"