the two.  There’s many a piece of wicked injustice in the world, but nothing more wicked than to set shame or blame on a child that’s born without permit of law or blessing of priest.  For it’s not the child’s fault,—­it’s brought into the world without its own consent,—­and yet the world fastens a slur upon it!  That’s downright brutal and senseless!—­for if there is any blame attached to the matter it should be fastened on the parents, and not on the child.  And that’s what I thought when you were left on my hands—­I took the blame of you on myself, and I was careful that you should be treated with every kindness and respect—­mind you that!  Respect!  There’s not a man on the place that doesn’t doff his cap to you; and you’ve been as my own daughter always.  You can’t deny it!  And more than that”—­here his strong voice faltered—­“I’ve loved you!—­yes-I’ve loved you, little Innocent—­”

She looked up in his face and saw it quivering with suppressed emotion, and the strange cold sense of aloofness that had numbed her senses suddenly gave way like snow melting in the spring.  In a moment she was in his arms, weeping out her pent-up tears on his breast, and he, stroking her soft hair, soothed her with every tender and gentle word he could think of.

“There, there!” he murmured, fondly.  “Thou must look at it in this way, dear child!  That if God deprived thee of one father he gave thee another in his place!  Make the best of that gift before it be taken from thee!”

CHAPTER IV

There are still a few old houses left in rural England which are as yet happily unmolested by the destroying ravages of modern improvement, and Briar Farm was one of these.  History and romance alike had their share in its annals, and its title-deeds went back to the autumnal days of 1581, when the Duke of Anjou came over from France to England with a royal train of noblemen and gentlemen in the hope to espouse the greatest monarch of all time, “the most renowned and victorious” Queen Elizabeth, whose reign has clearly demonstrated to the world how much more ably a clever woman can rule a country than a clever man, if she is left to her own instinctive wisdom and prescience.  No king has ever been wiser or more diplomatic than Elizabeth, and no king has left a more brilliant renown.  As the coldest of male historians is bound to admit, “her singular powers of government were founded equally on her temper and on her capacity.  Endowed with a great command over herself, she soon obtained an uncontrolled ascendant over her people.  Few sovereigns of England succeeded to the throne under more difficult circumstances, and none ever conducted the government with such uniform success and felicity.”  Had Elizabeth been weak, the Duke of Anjou might have realised his ambitious dream, with the unhappiest results for England; and that he fortunately failed was entirely due to her sagacity and her quick perception of his irresolute