nd finally reported to Robert: "The lady is not
mad, but she has a hereditary taint in her blood. She has the cunning of
madness, with the prudence of intelligence. She is dangerous." He gave
Robert a letter addressed to Monsieur Val, Villebrumeuse, Belgium, who,
he said, was the proprietor and medical superintendent of an excellent
_maison de sante_, and would, no doubt, willingly receive Lady Audley
into his establishment, and charge himself with the full responsibility
of her future life.

Robert escorted Lady Audley to Villebrumeuse, where she was presented to
Monsieur Val as Madame Taylor. When Monsieur Val retired from the
reception room, at my lady's request, she turned to Robert, and said:
"You have brought me to a living grave; you have used your power basely
and cruelly."

"I have done that which I thought was just to others, and merciful to
you," replied Robert. "Live here and repent."

"I cannot," cried my lady. "I would defy you and kill myself if I dared.
Do you know what I am thinking of? It is of the day upon which George
Talboys--disappeared! The body of George Talboys lies at the bottom of
the old well in the shrubbery beyond the lime walk. He came to me there,
goaded me beyond endurance, and I called him a madman and a liar. I was
going to leave him when he seized me by the wrist and sought to detain
me by force. You yourself saw the bruises. I became mad, and drew the
loose iron spindle from the shrunken wood of the windlass. My first
husband sank with one horrible cry into the black mouth of the well!"

_VI.--The Mystery Cleared Up_

On arrival in London, Robert Audley received a letter from Clara Talboys
saying that Luke Marks, the man whom he had saved in the fire at the
Castle Inn, was lying at his mother's cottage at Audley, and expressed a
very earnest wish to see him. Robert took train at once to Audley.

The dying man confessed that on the night of George Talboys's
disappearance, when going home to his mother's cottage, he heard groans
come from the laurel bushes in the shrubbery near the old well. On
search, he found Talboys covered with slime, and with a broken arm. He
carried the crippled man to his mother's cottage, washed, fed, and
nursed him.

Next day Talboys gave him a five-pound note to accompany him to the town
of Brentwood, where he called on a surgeon to have his broken arm set
and dressed. That done, Talboys wrote two notes in pencil with his left
hand, and gave them