'No, you must not,' said Emily, 'you will be sure to do mischief.'
'I am going to ask Wat for some powder,' was Maurice's reply, and he
walked off.
'Stop him, Jane, stop him,' cried Emily. 'Nothing can be so
dangerous. Tell him how angry papa would be.'
Though Jane highly esteemed her brother's discretion, she did not
much like the idea of his touching powder, and she ran after him to
suggest that he had better wait till papa's return.
'Then Redgie will be at home,' said Maurice, 'and I could not be
answerable for the consequence of such a careless fellow touching
powder.'
This great proof of caution quite satisfied Jane, but not so Wat
Greenwood, who proved himself a faithful servant by refusing to let
Master Maurice have one grain of gunpowder without express leave from
the squire. Maurice then had recourse to Jane, and his power over
her was such as to triumph over strong sense and weak notions of
obedience, so that she was prevailed upon to supply him with the
means of making the dangerous and forbidden purchase.
Emily was both annoyed and alarmed when she found that the gunpowder
was actually in the house, and she even thought of sending a note to
the parsonage to beg Mr.
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