y,
and glided in. It was a small room, used exclusively by Lord Hartledon,
where he kept a heterogeneous collection of things--papers, books,
cigars, pipes, guns, scientific models, anything--and which no one but
himself ever attempted to enter. The intervening door between that and
the library was not quite closed; and Lady Hartledon, cautiously pushed
it a little further open. Wilful, unpardonable disobedience! when he had
so strongly forbidden her! It was the same tall stranger. He was speaking
in low tones, and Lord Hartledon leaned against the wall with a blank
expression of face.

She saw; and heard. But how she controlled her feelings, how she remained
and made no sign, she never knew. But that the instinct of self-esteem
was one of her strongest passions, the dread of detection in proportion
to it, she never had remained. There she was, and she could not get away
again. The subtle dexterity which had served her in coming might desert
her in returning. Had their senses been on the alert they might have
heard her poor heart beating.

The interview did not last long--about twenty minutes; and whilst Lord
Hartledon was attending his visitor to the door she escaped upstairs
again, motioned away the nurse, and resumed her shoes. But what did she
look like? Not like Maude Hartledon. Her face was as that of one upon
whom some awful doom has fallen; her breath was coming painfully; and she
kneeled down on the carpet and clasped her children to her beating heart
with an action of wild despair.

"Oh, my boy! my boy! Oh, my little Maude!"

Suddenly she heard her husband's step approaching, and pushing them
from her, rose and stood at the window, apparently looking out on the
darkening world.

Lord Hartledon came in, gaily and cheerily, his manner lighter than it
had been for years.

"Well, Maude, I have not been long, you see. Why don't you have lights?"

She did not answer: only stared straight out. Her husband approached her.
"What are you looking at, Maude?"

"Nothing," she answered: "my head aches. I think I shall lie down until
dinner-time. Eddie, open the door, and call Nurse, as loud as you can
call."

The little boy obeyed, and the nurse returned, and was ordered to take
the children. Lady Hartledon was following them to go to her own room,
when she fell into a chair and went off in a dead faint.

"It's that excitement," said Val. "I do wish Maude would be reasonable!"

The illness, however, appeared t