Mr. O'Bleary!' exclaimed Mrs. Tibbs, in a
parenthesis.

'The villain!' said the indignant Mr. Evenson.

'The first thing to be done,' continued the Hibernian, 'is to poison Mr.
Gobler's mind.'

'Oh, certainly,' returned Agnes.

'What's that?' inquired Evenson again, in an agony of curiosity and a
whisper.

'He says she's to mind and poison Mr. Gobler,' replied Mrs. Tibbs, aghast
at this sacrifice of human life.

'And in regard of Mrs. Tibbs,' continued O'Bleary.--Mrs. Tibbs shuddered.

'Hush!' exclaimed Agnes, in a tone of the greatest alarm, just as Mrs.
Tibbs was on the extreme verge of a fainting fit. 'Hush!'

'Hush!' exclaimed Evenson, at the same moment to Mrs. Tibbs.

'There's somebody coming _up_-stairs,' said Agnes to O'Bleary.

'There's somebody coming _down_-stairs,' whispered Evenson to Mrs. Tibbs.

'Go into the parlour, sir,' said Agnes to her companion. 'You will get
there, before whoever it is, gets to the top of the kitchen stairs.'

'The drawing-room, Mrs. Tibbs!' whispered the astonished Evenson to his
equally astonished companion; and for the drawing-room they both made,
plainly hearing the rustling of two persons, one coming down-stairs, and
one coming up.

'What can it be?' exclaimed Mrs. Tibbs. 'It's like a dream. I wouldn't
be found in this situation for the world!'

'Nor I,' returned Evenson, who could never bear a joke at his own
expense. 'Hush! here they are at the door.'

'What fun!' whispered one of the new-comers.--It was Wisbottle.

'Glorious!' replied his companion, in an equally low tone.--This was
Alfred Tomkins. 'Who would have thought it?'

'I told you so,' said Wisbottle, in a most knowing whisper. 'Lord bless
you, he has paid her most extraordinary attention for the last two
months. I saw 'em when I was sitting at the piano to-night.'

'Well, do you know I didn't notice it?' interrupted Tomkins.

'Not notice it!' continued Wisbottle. 'Bless you; I saw him whispering
to her, and she crying; and then I'll swear I heard him say something
about to-night when we were all in bed.'

'They're talking of _us_!' exclaimed the agonised Mrs. Tibbs, as the
painful suspicion, and a sense of their situation, flashed upon her mind.

'I know it--I know it,' replied Evenson, with a melancholy consciousness
that there was no mode of escape.

'What's to be done? we cannot both stop here!' ejaculated Mrs. Tibbs, in
a state of partial derangement.

'I'll get up the chim