CHAPTER XVII.
THE FIRE-ENGINE.
As soon as supper was over in the housekeeper's room, Dorothy sped to the keep, where she found Caspar at work.
'My lord is not yet from supper, mistress,' he said.

'Will it please you wait while he comes ?' Had it been till midnight, so long as there was a chance of his appearing, Dorothy would have waited.

Caspar did his best to amuse her, and succeeded,--showing her one curious thing after another,--amongst the rest a watch that seemed to want no winding after being once set agoing, but was in fact wound up a little by every opening of the case to see the dial.

All the while the fire-engine was at work on its mysterious task, with but now and then a moment's attention from Caspar, a billet of wood or a shovelful of sea-coal on the fire, a pull at a cord, or a hint from the hooked rod.

The time went rapidly.
Twilight was over, Caspar had lighted his lamp, and the moon had risen, before lord Herbert came.
'I am glad to find you have patience as well as punctuality in the catalogue of your virtues, mistress Dorothy,' he said as he entered.