ame in. Jan's pressure
of work caused him of late to be irregular at his meals.

Scarcely was the tea over, and Master Cheese gone, when Mr. Bourne
called. Deborah, the one thought uppermost in her mind, closed the door,
and spoke out what she had heard. The terrible fear, her own distress,
Jan's belief that it was Fred himself, Jan's representation that Mr.
Bourne also believed it. Mr. Bourne, leaning forward until his pale face
and his iron-gray hair nearly touched hers, whispered in answer that he
did not think there was a doubt of it.

Then Deborah did nerve herself to the task. On the departure of the
vicar, she started for Verner's Pride and asked to see Sibylla. The
servants would have shown her to the drawing-room, but she preferred to
go up to Sibylla's chamber. The company were yet in the dining-room.

How long Sibylla kept her waiting there, she scarcely knew. Sibylla was
not in the habit of putting herself to inconvenience for her sisters.
The message was taken to her--that Miss West waited in her chamber--as
she entered the drawing-room. And there Sibylla let her wait. One or two
more messages to the same effect were subsequently delivered. They
produced no impression, and Deborah began to think she should not get to
see her that night.

But Sibylla came up at length, and Deborah entered upon her task.
Whether she accomplished it clumsily, or whether Sibylla's
ill-disciplined mind was wholly in fault, certain it is that there
ensued a loud and unpleasant scene. The scene to which you were a
witness. Scarcely giving herself time to take in more than the bare fact
hinted at by Deborah--that her first husband was believed to be
alive--not waiting to inquire a single particular, she burst out of the
room and went shrieking down the stairs, flying into the arms of Lionel,
who at that moment had entered.

CHAPTER LXI.

MEETING THE NEWS.

Lionel Verner could not speak comfort to his wife; or, at the best,
comfort of a most negative nature. He held her to him in the study, the
door locked against intruders. They were somewhat at cross-purposes.
Lionel supposed that the information had been imparted to her by Captain
Cannonby; he never doubted but that she had been told Frederick
Massingbird had returned and was on the scene; that he might come in any
moment--even that very present one as they spoke--to put in his claim
to her. Sibylla, on the contrary, did not think (what little she was
capable of