?" she muttered,
regarding its contents with a frown.

She laid her hand upon one of the papers, as if to remove it, then
drew back.

"No," she said, "I will touch nothing else; I have what I came to
seek, and have no right to meddle with what does not concern me. Let
her keep her other vile secrets to herself; my victory is already
complete."

She replaced the velvet cushion, pressing it hard down into its
place.

She then restored the trays as she had found them, but did not close
the casket, since she had found it open.

She retraced her steps into the boudoir, where, as she was passing
out, she trod upon something that attracted her attention.

She stooped to ascertain what it was, and discovered a gentleman's
glove.

"Ah," she said, as she picked it up and examined it, "I should say it
belongs to madam's brother! In that case, he must have returned this
evening to attend the grand finale, although I am sure he was not at
the dinner-table."

She dropped the glove upon the floor where she had found it, but there
was a look of perplexity upon her face as she did so.

"It seems a little strange," she mused, "that the young man should
have been away all this time; and if he was to return at all, I cannot
understand why there should have been this air of secrecy about it. He
has evidently been in this room to-night, but I am sure he has not
been seen about the house."

She opened the door and passed out into the hall, when she was
startled to hear the voice of Mrs. Goddard talking, in the hall below,
with the butler.

Mrs. Weld quietly slipped across to the room opposite--the same one in
which Edith and Mr. Goddard had held their interview earlier in the
evening--where, seating herself under a light, she caught up a book
from the table, and pretended to be deeply absorbed in its contents.

A moment later, madam, having ascended the stairs, came hurrying down
the hall, and saw her there.

She started.

It would never do for the woman to suspect the truth regarding what
she was about to do.

No one must dream that Edith was not lending herself willingly to the
last scene in the drama of the evening, and she expected to have some
difficulty in persuading her to take the part.

There must be no possibility of any one hearing any objections that
she might make, for, in that case, the charge of fraud could be
brought and proved against her and her brother, after all was over.

But after the first flash