. You may trust a woman's
instinct; and I know that man!" He did not reply at once, but presently
said:

"I fancy I must keep my promise."

"What is the book you are reading?" she said, changing the subject, for
Sir William was listening.

He opened it, and smiled musingly.

"It is called Affairs of Some Consequence in the Reign of Charles I.
In reading it I seemed to feel that it was incorrect, and my mind
kept wandering away into patches of things--incidents, scenes, bits
of talk--as I fancied they really were, not apocryphal or 'edited' as
here."

"I say," said Cluny, "that's rum, isn't it?"

"For instance," Gaston continued, "this tale of King Charles and
Buckingham." He read it. "Now here is the scene as I picture it." In
quick elliptical phrases he gave the tale from a different stand-point.

Sir William stared curiously at Gaston, then felt for some keys in his
pocket. He got up and rang the bell. Gaston was still talking. He gave
the keys to Falby with a whispered word. In a few moments Falby placed a
small leather box beside Sir William, and retired at a nod. Sir William
presently said: "Where did you read those things?"

"I do not know that I ever read them."

"Did your father tell you them?"

"I do not remember so, though he may have."

"Did you ever see this box?"

"Never before."

"You do not know what is in it?"

"Not in the least."

"And you have never seen this key?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"It is very strange." He opened the box. "Now, here are private papers
of Sir Gaston Belward, more than two hundred years old, found almost
fifty years ago by myself in the office of our family solicitor.
Listen."

He then began to read from the faded manuscript. A mysterious feeling
pervaded the room. Once or twice Cluny gave a dry nervous kind of laugh.
Much of what Gaston had said was here in stately old-fashioned language.
At a certain point the MS. ran:

"I drew back and said, 'As your grace will have it, then--"'

Here Gaston came to a sitting posture, and interrupted.

"Wait, wait!"

He rose, caught one of two swords that were crossed on the wall, and
stood out.

"This is how it was. 'As your grace will have it, then, to no waste
of time!' We fell to. First he came carefully and made strange feints,
learned at King Louis's Court, to try my temper. But I had had these
tricks of my cousin Secord, and I returned his sport upon him. Then he
came swiftly, and forced me back upon the