asks.

"'I went to her room last night, and I began to tell her more about him
and compare him with you.'

"'Well?' says he.

"'Well, she got into a temper, and told me that she would not allow Mr.
Blake's name to be associated with yours in her room.'

"Then, sur, that 'ere willain he swore like a trooper, and said he'd make
you rue the day you were born. After that, they were silent for a little
while, and then she says to him--

"'I believe she knows what you are wanting to do, and has some idea of
the influence you have exerted over him. She's as sharp as a lancet, and
it's difficult to deceive her.'

"'If only that Blake hadn't come,' he says, as if talkin' to hisself.

"'Yes,' she says, 'but he has come,' says she.

"'But if he can be made to leave her, and never speak to her again, will
it not show to her that he's what you said he was, and thus turn her
against him?'

"'I don't know. She's been cool enough to drive him away,' said that 'ere
Miss Staggles.

"'But if he leaves disgraced, proved to be a villain, a deceiver, a
blackleg, or worse than that, while I show up as an angel of light?'

"'I don't know,' she says. 'You are a wonderful man; you can do almost
anything. You could charm even an angel.'

"'Well, you'll do your best for me, won't you?' says he.

"'You know I will,' she says; 'but we must not be seen together like
this, or they will suspect something.'

"'True,' says he, 'but I want to know how things are goin' on.' Then he
stopped a minit, and a thought seemed to strike him. 'Miss Staggles, my
friend,' he says, 'watch her closely, and meet me here on New Year's
Day, at five o'clock in the evening. It's dark then, and everybody will
be indoors.'"

"Then, yer honour, they went away together, and I was on the look-out
for you all day yesterday."

There was much in Simon's story to think about, and for a time all was
mystery to me. One thing, however, I thought was clear. He had either
found he could do no good by his mesmeric influences, or else he had
lost them, and so he was working up some other scheme against me. I
pondered long over the words, "If he leaves disgraced, proved to be a
villain, a deceiver, a blackleg, or worse than that, while I show up as
an angel of light?" Surely that meant a great deal! I must be on the
watch. I must be as cunning as he. I did not like eavesdropping or
playing the spy, and yet I felt there were times when it would be right
to do so, and sur