with a spark of his satirical humor flashing
out at his niece, "I am going to do a very rash thing. I am going to
place a serious trust in the hands of a girl of eighteen."

"The girl's hands will keep it, uncle--though she _is_ only eighteen."

"I must run the risk, my dear; your intimate knowledge of Miss Silvester
may be of the greatest assistance to me in the next step I take. You
shall know all that I can tell you, but I must warn you first. I
can only admit you into my confidence by startling you with a great
surprise. Do you follow me, so far?"

"Yes! yes!"

"If you fail to control yourself, you place an obstacle in the way of
my being of some future use to Miss Silvester. Remember that, and now
prepare for the surprise. What did I tell you before dinner?"

"You said you had made discoveries at Craig Fernie. What have you found
out?"

"I have found out that there is a certain person who is in full
possession of the information which Miss Silvester has concealed from
you and from me. The person is within our reach. The person is in this
neighborhood. The person is in this room!"

He caught up Blanche's hand, resting on his arm, and pressed it
significantly. She looked at him with the cry of surprise suspended
on her lips--waited a little with her eyes fixed on Fir Patrick's
face--struggled resolutely, and composed herself.

"Point the person out." She said the words with a self-possession which
won her uncle's hearty approval. Blanche had done wonders for a girl in
her teens.

"Look!" said Sir Patrick; "and tell me what you see."

"I see Lady Lundie, at the other end of the room, with the map of
Perthshire and the Baronial Antiquities of Scotland on the table. And I
see every body but you and me obliged to listen to her."

"Every body?"

Blanche looked carefully round the room, and noticed Geoffrey in the
opposite corner; fast asleep by this time in his arm-chair.

"Uncle! you don't mean--?"

"There is the man."

"Mr. Delamayn--!"

"Mr. Delamayn knows every thing."

Blanche held mechanically by her uncle's arm, and looked at the sleeping
man as if her eyes could never see enough of him.

"You saw me in the library in private consultation with Mr. Delamayn,"
resumed Sir Patrick. "I have to acknowledge, my dear, that you were
quite right in thinking this a suspicious circumstance, And I am now
to justify myself for having purposely kept you in the dark up to the
present time."

With those