bing wildly; and catching hold
of Ada's hand, she kissed it fiercely again and again.

"Is anything wrong?" exclaimed Ada Norton, with a horrified look, for a
dreadful fear had flashed across her mind.

"No, Miss Ada--I mean Mrs Norton--_not yet--not yet_! but unless some
one interferes there soon will be! Oh, 'm! I didn't care to go to the
Rectory, for I knew that they wouldn't believe me there! but I'm afraid
something dreadful will happen to my poor dear lady! I have come to you
because you are her cousin, and I know you loved her, though things have
gone so crooked since. But what shall we do, 'm? for since that last
time when my lady met Mr Norton in the wood, and Sir Murray caught
them--" Jane ceased, for Ada Norton leaped to her feet as if some
galvanic shock had passed through her frame.

"Oh, what am I saying, ma'am? I didn't think that you'd take it in that
way, nor yet that you wouldn't know of it. It was nothing, ma'am; only
Sir Murray was telling my lady of it; and she said that they met by
accident, and that almost all her words to him were to send her love to
you, ma'am."

"It was, then, upon that occasion?" said Ada Norton, in agitated tones.

"Yes, 'm; and I was in the dressing-room, and heard all. Not that Sir
Murray spoke angrily, but in a curious, sneering tone that frightens my
lady; and ever since then she's been ill, and taking medicine; and--oh,
'm!--you would not get me into trouble for trying to do what's right by
my lady?"

"No--no," said Ada, who was trying to recall her husband's words when he
had told her of his last meeting with Lady Gernon, for he had said
nothing respecting the coming of Sir Murray.

"Well, ma'am," sobbed Jane, "since then"--she sank her voice into a
whisper, and sent a thrill of horror through Ada Norton as she
spoke--"since then, ma'am, I'm sure Sir Murray has been trying to poison
her!"

"Poison my cousin, Lady Gernon?" exclaimed Ada. "Nonsense! Absurd!
Jane, you are mad!"

"I hope I am, ma'am, about that--indeed I do!" cried Jane, earnestly.

"But what have you seen? What do you know?" exclaimed Mrs Norton.

"I haven't seen anything, ma'am, except Sir Murray coming sometimes out
of the dressing-room, where the medicine's kept; and I don't know
anything except that my lady's medicine always tastes different, and
looks different, when it's been in the dressing-room a day or two; and
every week it turns a darker colour, and tastes stronger than it