“Just in this great house all alone with her father. A girl needs a mother, Biddy.”

“Aye, so they do, and I thank heaven it was given to me to be one to you, my sweety.”

“And you have been more than that to me,” whispered the girl.

“Oh, Biddy, if I only had my Tom now, I would be the happiest girl in the world.”

“Then why don’t you go and see a good lawyer, and maybe he will help you to get him out?”

“I don’t know who to go to.”

“And I wouldn’t ask Mr. Benson either,” said Biddy with a curious wink of her eye. “You remember what Mr. Tom said, don’t you?”

“Blaming my cousin for his arrest?”

“That’s it; he was to blame for the lad’s trouble.”

“You need not fear, Biddy, that I shall go to him, for he has done enough harm.”