her husband. He looked here, looked there, as one perplexed
with fear, and finally went out of the room with a calm face, but one
that was turning livid.

Lady Hartledon followed in an impulse of curiosity. She looked after him
over the balustrades, and saw him turn into the library below. Hedges was
standing near the drawing-room door.

"Does any one want Lord Hartledon?"

"Yes, my lady."

"Who is it?"

"I don't know, my lady. Some gentleman."

She ran lightly down the stairs, pausing at the foot, as if ashamed of
her persistent curiosity. The well-lighted hall was before her; the
dining-room on one side; the library and a small room communicating on
the other. Throwing back her head, as in defiance, she boldly crossed the
hall and opened the library door.

Now what Lady Hartledon had really thought was that the visitor was Mr.
Carr; her husband was going to steal a quiet half-hour with him; and
Hedges was in the plot. She had not lived with Hartledon the best part
of a year without learning that Hedges was devoted heart and soul to his
master.

She opened the library-door. Her husband's back was towards her; and
facing him, his arms raised as if in anger or remonstrance, was the same
stranger who had caused some commotion in the other house. She knew him
in a moment: there he was, with his staid face, his black clothes, and
his white neckcloth, looking so like a clergyman. Lord Hartledon turned
his head.

"I am engaged, Maude; you can't come in," he peremptorily said; and
closed the door upon her.

She went slowly up the stairs again, not choosing to meet the butler's
eyes, past the drawing-rooms, and up to her own. The sight of the
stranger, coupled with her husband's signs of emotion, had renewed all
her old suspicions, she knew not, she never had known, of what. Jumping
to the conclusion that those letters must be in some way connected with
the mystery, perhaps an advent of the visit, it set her thinking, and
rebellion arose in her heart.

"I wonder if he put them in the ebony cabinet?" she exclaimed. "I have a
key that will fit that."

Yes, she had a key to fit it. A few weeks before, Lord Hartledon mislaid
his keys; he wanted something out of this cabinet, in which he did not,
as a rule, keep anything of consequence, and tried hers. One was found to
unlock it, and he jokingly told her she had a key to his treasures. But
himself strictly honourable, he could not suspect dishonour in another;
and L