in,
and hid him?" helped my cause with Raoul.

"No," he said, "I can't think it. I won't, and don't think it. And you
need tell me nothing. I love you. And so help me God, I won't distrust
you again!"

Just as it entered my mind to risk everything on the chance that Ivor
had by this time found his way out, I heard, or fancied I heard, a faint
sound in the next room. He was there still.

Instead of throwing open the door, as it had occurred to me to do,
saying, "Let us look for the man, and make sure no one else let him in,"
I laughed out abruptly, as if on a sudden thought, but really to cover
the sound if it should come again.

"Oh, Raoul!" I exclaimed, in the midst of the laughter with which I
surprised him. "You're taking this too seriously. A thousand times I
thank you for trusting me in spite of appearances, but--after all,
_were_ they so much against me? You seem to think I am the only young
woman in this house. Marianne, poor dear, is old enough, it's true. But
I have a _femme de chambre_ and a _cuisiniere_, both under twenty-five,
both pretty, and both engaged to be married." (This was true. Ah, what a
comfort to speak the truth to him!) "Doesn't it occur to you that, at
this very moment, a couple of lovers may be sitting hand in hand on the
seat under the old yew arbour? Can't you imagine how they started and
tried to hold their breath lest you should hear, as you opened the gate
and came up the path?"

"Forgive me!" murmured Raoul, in the depths of remorse again.

"Shall we go and look, or shall we leave them in peace?"

"Leave them in peace, by all means."

"The man will be slipping away soon, no doubt. Both Therese and Annette
are good little girls."

"Don't let's bother about them. You will be sending me away soon, too,
and I shall deserve it. Brute that I am. You were so tired, and I--"

"Oh, I'm better now," I said. "Of course I must send you away by and by,
but not quite yet. First, I want to ask if you weren't glad when you saw
the jewels?"

"Jewels?" echoed Raoul. "What jewels?"

"You don't mean to say you haven't yet opened the little bag I gave you
at the theatre?" I exclaimed.

Raoul looked half ashamed. "Dearest, don't think me ungrateful," he
said, "but before I had a chance to open it I met Godensky, and he told
me--that lie. It lit a fire in my brain. I forgot all about the bag, and
haven't thought of it again till this minute."

At last I laughed with sincerity. "Oh, Raoul, Ra