nd laid her hand on the bell which rang below stairs,
in the pantry. "Must I ring?" she said.

It was plain that she would do it, if he moved a step nearer to her.
He drew aside--with a look which made her tremble. On passing the hall
table, she placed her letter in the post-basket. His eye followed it, as
it left her hand: he became suddenly penitent and polite. "I am sorry if
I have alarmed you," he said, and opened the house-door for her--without
showing himself to Marceline and the coachman outside.

The carriage having been driven away, he softly closed the door again,
and returned to the hall-table. He looked into the post-basket.

Was there any danger of discovery by the servants? The footman was
absent, attending his mistress on her way to the lecture. None of the
female servants were on the stairs. He took up Carmina's letter, and
looked at the address: _To Ovid Vere, Esq._

His eyes twinkled furtively; his excellent memory for injuries reminded
him that Ovid Vere had formerly endeavoured (without even caring
to conceal it) to prevent Mrs. Gallilee from engaging him as her
music-master. By subtle links of its own forging, his vindictive nature
now connected his hatred of the person to whom the letter was addressed,
with his interest in stealing the letter itself for the possible
discovery of Carmina's secrets. The clock told him that there was plenty
of time to open the envelope, and (if the contents proved to be of no
importance) to close it again, and take it himself to the post. After
a last look round, he withdrew undiscovered, with the letter in his
pocket.

On its way back to the house, the carriage was passed by a cab, with a
man in it, driven at such a furious rate that there was a narrow escape
of collision. The maid screamed; Carmina turned pale; the coachman
wondered why the man in the cab was in such a hurry. The man was Mr.
Mool's head clerk, charged with news for Doctor Benjulia.

CHAPTER XLIII.

The mind of the clerk's master had been troubled by serious doubts,
after Carmina left his house on Sunday.

Her agitated manner, her strange questions, and her abrupt
departure, all suggested to Mr. Mool's mind some rash project in
contemplation--perhaps even the plan of an elopement. To most other
men, the obvious course to take would have been to communicate with Mrs.
Gallilee. But the lawyer preserved a vivid remembrance of the interview
which had taken place at his office. The detestab