nd of some one slily trying the handle of
the door. It had been preceded by no audible footstep. Since the
departure of Rowley our wing of the house had been entirely silent. And
we had every right to suppose ourselves alone, and to conclude that the
new-comer, whoever he might be, was come on a clandestine, if not a
hostile, errand.

"Who is there?" asked Romaine.

"It's only me, sir," said the soft voice of Dawson. "It's the Viscount,
sir. He is very desirous to speak with you on business."

"Tell him I shall come shortly, Dawson," said the lawyer. "I am at
present engaged."

"Thank you, sir!" said Dawson.

And we heard his feet draw off slowly along the corridor.

"Yes," said Mr. Romaine, speaking low, and maintaining the attitude of
one intently listening, "there is another foot. I cannot be deceived!"

"I think there was indeed!" said I. "And what troubles me--I am not sure
that the other has gone entirely away. By the time it got the length of
the head of the stair the tread was plainly single."

"Ahem--blockaded?" asked the lawyer.

"A siege _en regle_!" I exclaimed.

"Let us come farther from the door," said Romaine, "and reconsider this
damnable position. Without doubt, Alain was this moment at the door. He
hoped to enter and get a view of you, as if by accident. Baffled in
this, has he stayed himself, or has he planted Dawson here by way of
sentinel?"

"Himself, beyond a doubt," said I. "And yet to what end? He cannot think
to pass the night there!"

"If it were only possible to pay no heed!" said Mr. Romaine. "But this
is the accursed drawback of your position. We can do nothing openly. I
must smuggle you out of this room and out of this house like seizable
goods; and how am I to set about it with a sentinel planted at your very
door?"

"There is no good in being agitated," said I.

"None at all," he acquiesced. "And, come to think of it, it is droll
enough that I should have been that very moment commenting on your
personal appearance, when your cousin came upon this mission. I was
saying, if you remember, that your face was as good or better than a
letter of recommendation. I wonder if M. Alain would be like the rest of
us--I wonder what he would think of it?"

Mr. Romaine was sitting in a chair by the fire with his back to the
windows, and I was myself kneeling on the hearthrug and beginning
mechanically to pick up the scattered bills, when a honeyed voice joined
suddenly in our convers