looked like an old cockatoo. "You
know best what that is. It is a mistake which has brought its own
punishment with it."

"To me as well as to you. Remember that!"

"You have very little to whine about. It was I who stooped and you who
rose."

"Rose!"

"Yes, rose. I suppose you do not deny that it is a promotion to exchange
the music-hall for Mannering Hall. Fool that I was ever to take you out
of your true sphere!"

"If you think so, why do you not separate?"

"Because private misery is better than public humiliation. Because it is
easier to suffer for a mistake than to own to it. Because also I like to
keep you in my sight, and to know that you cannot go back to him."

"You villain! You cowardly villain!"

"Yes, yes, my lady. I know your secret ambition, but it shall never be
while I live, and if it happens after my death I will at least take care
that you go to him as a beggar. You and dear Edward will never have the
satisfaction of squandering my savings, and you may make up your mind to
that, my lady. Why are those shutters and the window open?"

"I found the night very close."

"It is not safe. How do you know that some tramp may not be outside? Are
you aware that my collection of medals is worth more than any similar
collection in the world? You have left the door open also. What is there
to prevent any one from rifling the cases?"

"I was here."

"I know you were. I heard you moving about in the medal room, and that
was why I came down. What were you doing?"

"Looking at the medals. What else should I be doing?"

"This curiosity is something new." He looked suspiciously at her and
moved on towards the inner room, she walking beside him.

It was at this moment that I saw something which startled. I had laid my
clasp-knife open upon the top of one of the cases, and there it lay in
full view. She saw it before he did, and with a woman's cunning she held
her taper out so that the light of it came between Lord Mannering's eyes
and the knife. Then she took it with her left hand and held it against
her gown out of his sight. He looked about from case to case--I could
have put my hand at one time upon his long nose--but there was nothing
to show that the medals had been tampered with, and so, still snarling
and grumbling, he shuffled off into the other room once more.

And now I have to speak of what I heard rather than of what I saw, but I
swear to you, as I shall stand some day before my Maker, tha