"you will not leave us so easily. Know, man, that you are
punishable by the law of England."

"How?"

"You are guilty of many things that I need not enumerate here; some
Kaffar has told me about, some I knew before. So, instead of my lying in
a felon's cell, it will be you."

Then we all received a great shock. Miss Staggles arose from her chair
and rushed towards me.

"No, no, Mr. Blake," she cried; "no, not for my sake. He's my only son.
For my sake, spare him."

"_Your_ only son? _Yours?_" cried Miss Forrest's aunt.

"Mine," cried this gaunt old woman. "Oh, I was married on the Continent
when quite a girl, and I dared not tell of it, for my husband was a
gambler and a villain; but he was handsome and fascinating, and so he
won me. Herod, this son of mine, was born just the day before his father
was killed in a duel. Oh, spare him for my sake!"

I need not enter into the further explanations she made, nor how she
pleaded for mercy for him, for they were painful to all. And did I spare
him? Yes; on condition that he left England, never to return again,
besides stipulating for Kaffar's safety.

He left the house soon after, and we all felt a sense of relief when he
had gone, save Miss Staggles, or rather Mrs. Voltaire, who went up to
her room weeping bitterly.

Need I relate what followed that night? Need I tell how I had to recount
my doings and journeyings over again and again, while Simon and Kaffar
were asked to give such information as I was unable to give, and how one
circumstance was explained by another until all was plain? I will not
tax my readers' patience by so doing; this must be left to their own
imagination.

After this, Mrs. Walters insisted that we must have refreshments, and
bustled away to order it, while a servant conducted Simon and Kaffar to
a room where food was to be obtained; and so I was left alone with the
woman I loved.

"Well?" I said, when they were gone.

"Well?" she replied, looking shyly into my face.

"I have done your bidding," I said, after a minute's silence. "I have
freed you from that man."

"Thank God, you have!" she said, with a shudder. "Oh, if you only knew
how I have prayed and hoped and thought!"

"And I had a promise, too," I said; "will it be painful for you to keep
it?"

"Painful, Justin?" she cried. "You know I will gladly be your wife."

I will not write of what happened then. It is not for the eyes of the
world to see. Tears come into my eyes now