once, Mr. Le Frank made a startling reply.

"Submit on your side," he said. "Do what she asks of you. And when you
are well enough to go to her lodgings, decline with thanks if she offers
you anything to eat or drink."

Mrs. Gallilee raised herself on the sofa. "Are you insulting me, sir,"
she asked, "by making this serious emergency the subject of a joke?"

"I never was more in earnest, madam, in my life."

"You think--you really think--that she is capable of trying to poison
me?"

"Most assuredly I do."

Mrs. Gallilee sank back on the pillow. Mr. Le Frank stated his reasons;
checking them off, one by one, on his fingers.

"Who is she?" he began. "She is an Italian woman of the lower orders.
The virtues of the people among whom she had been born and bred, are not
generally considered to include respect for the sanctity of human life.
What do we know already that she has done? She has alarmed the priest,
who keeps her conscience, and knows her well; and she has attacked you
with such murderous ferocity that it is a wonder you have escaped
with your life. What sort of message have you sent to her, after this
experience of her temper? You have told the tigress that you have the
power to separate her from her cub, and that you mean to use it. On
those plain facts, as they stare us in the face, which is the soundest
conclusion? To believe that she really submits--or to believe that she
is only gaining time, and is capable (if she sees no other alternative)
of trying to poison you?"

"What would you advise me to do?" In those words Mrs. Gallilee--never
before reduced to ask advice of anybody--owned that sound reasoning was
not thrown away on her.

Mr. Le Frank answered the demand made on him without hesitation.

"The nurse has not signed that act of submission," he said, "without
having her own private reasons for appearing to give way. Rely on it,
she is prepared for you--and there is at least a chance that some proof
of it may be found. Have all her movements privately watched--and search
the room she lives in, as I searched Miss Carmina's room last night."

"Well?" said Mrs. Gallilee.

"Well?" Mr. Le Frank repeated.

She angrily gave way. "Say at once that you are the man to do it for
me!" she answered. "And say next--if you can--how it is to be done."

Mr. Le Frank's manner softened to an air of gentle gallantry.

"Pray compose yourself!" he said. "I am so glad to be of service to you,
and it is so eas