base schemings, hastened after her, rejoicing in the
knowledge that her cousins and Miss Layton would also be present.

"As I knew exactly where he was going, and assumed his object to be a
domestic quarrel, I did not think it necessary to accompany him until I
had first consulted you, sir," said the imperturbable Holden.

"You acted quite rightly. Wait until the little beast returns to London!"
exclaimed the barrister, with some degree of warmth.

Capella's conduct reminded him of a spiteful child which deserved a sound
spanking. He telegraphed to Hume to inform him of the fiery visitor who
might be expected at the hotel that evening.

Oddly enough, Helen, David, and the Rev. Mr. Layton, tempted by a marine
excursion to Scarborough and back, left Whitby Harbour on a local steamer
at 11 a.m., and were timed to return about 9 p.m. Margaret was not a good
sailor, so Robert Hume-Frazer remained with her, the two going for a
protracted stroll along the cliffs.

During their walk, the golden influences of the hour unlocked Margaret's
heart. She was overwhelmed with the consciousness of the wretched mistakes
of her life. She could not help contrasting the manly, gallant, out-spoken
sailor by her side with the miserable foreigner whom she had espoused
under the influence of a genuine but too violent passion. The knowledge
that Robert might, under happier conditions, have been her husband was
crushing and terrible.

There came to her some half-defined resolve to show her cousin how
unworthy she was of his affections. Stopping defiantly at a moment when he
casually called her attention to a lovely glimpse of rock-bound sea framed
in a deep gorge, she said to him:

"Robert, I have something to tell you. I was on the point of telling Mr.
Brett the last time I saw him in London, but he would not permit it. You
are my cousin, and ought to know."

"My dear girl," he cried, "why this solemnity? You give me shivers when
you speak in that way!"

"Pray listen to me, Robert. This is no matter for jesting. I am your
cousin, but only in a sense. In the eyes of the law I am a nameless
outcast. My mother was not Alan's mother. I was born before my father
married the lady who treated me as her daughter until her death. My mother
was an Italian, who died at my birth, and whom my father never married."

Frazer looked at the beautiful woman who addressed these astonishing words
to him, and amazement, incredulity, a spasm almost of fear,