"Yes, it is your influence, Stella. I have watched and noticed it. There is no one in the world who has so much power over him. Yes, he is a good boy now, thanks to you!"
What could she say? Her heart throbbed quickly. Her influence! and she was now going to help him to deceive his father—for her sake!
In silence she hid her face, and a tear rolled down her cheek and fell upon his arm.
"Uncle," she murmured, "you know I love you! You know that! You will always remember and believe that, whatever—whatever happens."
He nodded all unsuspectingly, and smiled.
"What is going to happen, Stella?" he asked; but even as he asked his gaze grew dreamy and absent, and she, looking in his face, was silent.
As the clock struck the hour Jasper Adelstone threaded his way through the wood, and stood concealed behind the oak by the weir.
He had not spent a pleasant time since the avowal of his love to Stella, and her refusal. Most men would have been daunted and discouraged at such a refusal, so scornfully, so decidedly given, but Jasper Adelstone was not the sort to be so easily balked. Opposition only served to whet his appetite and harden his resolution.