to say that
nothing of that sort has come into my experience, and, of course, Mordon
is a good-looking man and she is young----"

"What are you talking about?" His tone was dictatorial and commanding.

"I mean," she said, "that I fear poor Lydia is in love with Mordon."

He sprang to his feet.

"It's a damned lie!" he said, and she stared at him. "Now tell me what
has happened to Lydia Meredith," he went on, "and let me tell you this,
Jean Briggerland, that if one hair of that girl's head is harmed, I will
finish the work I began out there," he pointed to the garden, "and
strangle you with my own hands."

She lifted her eyes to his and dropped them again, and began to
tremble, then turning suddenly on her heel, she fled to her room, locked
the door and stood against it, white and shaking. For the second time in
her life Jean Briggerland was afraid.

She heard his quick footsteps in the passage outside, and there came a
tap on her door.

"Let me in," growled the man, and for a second she almost lost control
of herself. She looked wildly round the room for some way of escape, and
then as a thought struck her, she ran quickly into the bath-room, which
opened from her room. A large sponge was set to dry by an open window,
and this she seized; on a shelf by the side of the bath was a big bottle
of ammonia, and averting her face, she poured its contents upon the
sponge until it was sodden, then with the dripping sponge in her hand,
she crept back, turned the key and opened the door.

The old man burst in, then, before he realised what was happening, the
sponge was pressed against his face. The pungent drug almost blinded
him, its paralysing fumes brought him on to his knees. He gripped her
wrist and tried to press away her hand, but now her arm was round his
neck, and he could not get the purchase.

With a groan of agony he collapsed on the floor. In that instant she was
on him like a cat, her knee between his shoulders.

Half unconscious he felt his hands drawn to his back, and felt something
lashing them together. She was using the silk girdle which had been
about her waist, and her work was effective.

Presently she turned him over on his back. The ammonia was still in his
eyes, and he could not open them. The agony was terrible, almost
unendurable. With her hand under his arm he struggled to his feet. He
felt her lead him somewhere, and suddenly he was pushed into a chair.
She left him alone for a little whi