o make such an appeal to me?" cried Lady Exeter
rising. "Begone, instantly, I say. Thou hast no order whatever from me;
or if thou fanciest so, I revoke it."

"The order cannot be revoked," cried Lord Roos, grasping her arm. "This
is not a time for hesitation or repentance. Having commenced the work,
you must go through with it--whether you will or not."

"Whether I will or not!" exclaimed Lady Exeter, regarding him with
angry surprise. "Have I heard you aright, my Lord? Am I to be forced
into association in this foul deed? Have I sunk so low in your esteem
that you venture to treat me thus?"

"Pardon me, Frances--pardon me!" he cried, imploringly. "I have said
more than I intended. If I appear to exercise undue influence over you
now, you will forgive me hereafter, because the situation is one that
requires decision, and that quality I possess in a higher degree than
yourself. Luke Hatton must obey the orders given him. And you must
sanction them."

"Never!" she exclaimed, emphatically.

"Then we part for ever," cried Lord Roos. "No matter what the pang may
be--nor what befals me--I will go. Farewell for ever, Countess!"

"Stay!" she cried. "We must not part thus."

"Then you consent?" he exclaimed. "Luke Hatton receives his orders from
you?"

"Ask me not that question!" she cried, with a shudder.

"If her ladyship will but sign this," said Luke Hatton, holding towards
her the paper on which the names were written, "it will suffice for me."

"You hear what he says, Frances. You will do it?" cried Lord Roos. "'Tis
but a few strokes of a pen."

"Those few strokes will cost me my soul," she rejoined. "But if it must
he so, it must. Give me the pen."

And as Lord Roos complied, she signed the paper.

"Nov you may go," said Lord Roos to Luke Hatton, who received the paper
with a diabolical grin. "You may count upon your reward."

"In a week's time, my lord," said Luke Hatton, still grinning, and
shifting his glance from the half-fainting Countess to the young
nobleman; "in a week's time" he repeated, "you will have to put on
mourning for your wife--and in a month for your mother-in-law."

And with a cringing bow, and moving with a soft cat-like footstep, he
quitted the room, leaving the guilty pair alone together.

END OF VOL. I.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star-Chamber, Volume 1
by W. Harrison Ainsworth

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-CHAMBER, VOLUME 1 ***