lood, and measured its power by its resistance. The full
but laboring swell of the heart might well deceive him, then, into the
impression that no grave consequences were near. He knew not that in
such affections the pulse can be round and strong and impulsive; and it
was with an earnest conviction of truth he whispered to her,--

"There is no danger."

She looked up, but it was easy to see that although the words had
sounded like comfort, they had not pierced the dense veil that clouded
her mind.

Cashel repeated the phrase, and said,--

"Tiernay will soon be here, but have no fears; my own slight skill
can tell you there is nothing of peril. Had you not better retire from
this--even to the window?"

A faint "No" was all she uttered.

"He was in perfect health this afternoon?" said Cashel to the maid.

"My Lord was better than usual, sir; he took out his collar and his star
to look at them, and he spoke very pleasantly of going abroad in the
spring. He was reading in the library when Mr. Linton went to him."

"Linton!" muttered Lady Kilgoff, with a shudder.

"I think I hear voices in the corridor," said Cashel. "If it be the
doctor, say I wish to speak with him before he sees my Lord."

The maid left the room to perform the commission, and scarcely had the
door closed, than Lady Kilgoff started up, and seizing an object which
lay on the bed, exclaimed, "How came it in your keeping?"

"What?" cried Cashel, in amazement

"This bracelet," said she, holding out towards him the massive bracelet
which Linton had contrived to detach from her arm at their meeting in
the "Park."

"I never saw it before--never in my life."

She sank slowly back upon the chair without speaking, while a faint
tremor shook her frame.

"The doctor is without, sir," said the maid at this moment, and Cashel
hastened out. He spoke a few hurried words to Tiernay, and then walked
towards his own room. That some deep and artful treachery had drawn its
web around and about him, involving not himself alone, but another
too, he now clearly felt. He saw danger, as the sailor sees it in the
lowering sky and fleeting scud, but as yet he knew not from what quarter
the "squall" was coming. His suspicions all pointed to Linton; but why
attribute such a game to him? and if such were his purpose, to what end
could be practise this treachery?

"Would it not be better," thought he, "to see him at once; tell him my
suspicions openly; say, that I no