s of no consequence! Tell me how you've learned all this?"
repeated the stranger, in a tone of almost stern authority.

Sir Norman started and stared. That voice! I have had heard it a
thousand times! It had evidently been disguised before; but now, in the
excitement of the moment, the stranger was thrown off his guard, and it
became perfectly familiar. But where had he heard it? For the life of
him, Sir Norman could not tell, yet it was as well known to him as
his own. It had the tone, too, of one far more used to command than
entreaty; and Sir Norman, instead of getting angry, as he felt he ought
to have done, mechanically answered:

"The watchman told you of the two young men who brought her out and laid
her in the dead-cart--I was one of the two."

"And who was the other?"

"A friend of mine--one Malcolm Ormiston."

"Ah! I know him! Pardon my abruptness, Sir Norman," said the stranger,
once more speaking in his assumed suave tone, "but I feel deeply on this
subject, and was excited at the moment. You spoke of her being brought
to the house of a friend--now, who may that friend be, for I was not
aware that she had any?"

"So I judged," said Sir Norman, rather bitterly, "or she would not have
been left to die alone of the plague. She was brought to my house, sir,
and I am the friend who would have stood by her to the last!"

Sir Norman sat up very straight and haughty on his horse; and had it
been daylight, he would have seen a slight derisive smile pass over the
lips of his companion.

"I have always heard that Sir Norman Kingsley was a chivalrous knight,"
he said; "but I scarcely dreamed his gallantry would have carried him
so far as to brave death by the pestilence for the sake of an unknown
lady--however beautiful. I wonder you did not carry her to the
pest-house."

"No doubt! Those who could desert her at such a time would probably be
capable of that or any other baseness!"

"My good friend," said the stranger, calmly, "your insinuation is not
over-courteous, but I can forgive it, more for the sake of what you've
done for her to-night than for myself."

Sir Norman's lip curled.

"I'm obliged to you! And now, sir, as you have seen fit to question me
in this free and easy manner, will you pardon me if I take the liberty
of returning the compliment, and ask you a few in return?"

"Certainly; pray proceed, Sir Norman," said the stranger, blandly; "you
are at liberty to ask as many questions as you ple