do, otherwise--otherwise--Oh! it's too dreadful!"

He swung round. "I know everything," he rejoined.

"You can't really want to keep me beside you then."

He smiled sadly. "And why not, in all conscience!"

She wiped her eyes quickly and frowned darkly at him.

"Lord Henry, are you fooling me?" she ejaculated. "Don't you know that a
moment ago I was intent only on one thing, and that was----"

She choked and could go no further.

He walked up to her and laid a hand on her arm. "I tell you I know
everything," he repeated.

"You pretend that you know," she sneered.

He smiled and bowed his head. "If you mean," he suggested, "that two
hours ago you were firing from that ambush with the definite intention
of doing Leonetta some mortal injury, I need hardly say----"

"Yes," she said fiercely, "I do mean that."

"Of course I knew that," he observed. "Don't imagine I had any doubt
about that. When I first came up to you I was convinced of it. What else
could you have been doing?"

She scrutinised him intently. "Well, then?" she stammered.

"If only you will be good enough to walk back to the inn with me," he
said, again offering her his arm, "I'll explain everything to you."

"All right, walk on!" she said, declining his proffered assistance.

And then, as they walked, he began to unfold to her his reasons for his
behaviour with Leonetta in the woods that morning. He explained how he
had reckoned that he would be back in time to tell her first, and that
had it not been for the fury of Denis's indignation, he would certainly
have succeeded.

They reached the inn and repaired to the bar parlour, and over the
frugal meal he continued his explanation. She listened intently, raised
an objection from time to time, which he deftly parried, and thus
gradually the whole story was made plain to her. She revived visibly
under the effects of the refreshment, and the precise and convincing
manner of his narrative; and when at last the complete chain of
consequence had been revealed to her, he left her very much recovered
while he went in search of some vehicle to convey them back to "The
Fastness."

In about twenty minutes he returned with a broken-down old brougham--the
only vehicle the village possessed,--and in a moment they were rattling
away slowly in the direction of Brineweald.

"Then what made you look for me with such anxiety?" she enquired, once
they were well on their way. "Why did you guess so positively t