the basilisk.

"I ain't agoing to sign. I ain't done nothing to be discharged. I ain't
said nothing but what I seed with my own eyes," William Roper protested.

"Sign!" said Mr. Manley, tapping the receipt like an official in a spy
play. "Sign!"

He was too much for William Roper. The conflict, such as it was, of wills
ceased abruptly. William Roper signed.

Mr. Manley pushed the money towards him as towards a loathed pariah.
William Roper counted it, and put it in his pocket. He walked towards the
door with an air of stupefied dejection.

"Also, you are to be off the estate by twelve o'clock tomorrow. Loudwater
is not the place for ungrateful and slanderous rogues," said Mr. Manley.

William Roper stopped and turned; his face was working malignantly.

"We'll see what Mr. Flexen's got to say about this," he snarled, went
through the door, and slammed it behind him.

CHAPTER XV

Olivia came that night to her tryst with Grey in a great dejection. She
perceived clearly enough that the instant discharge of William Roper
would not stop the scandal, and she was desperately afraid of the results
of it. The hope which had sprung up in her mind on reading in the _Daily
Wire_ the story of her husband's quarrel with an unknown woman died down.
This was a far more important matter, and she could not see how the
police could fail to act on William Roper's story.

She found Grey waiting for her with his wonted impatience, and presently
told him about William Roper.

"This is the very thing I've been fearing," he said with a sudden
heaviness.

"It will certainly force Mr. Flexen's hand," she said.

"I don't know--I don't know," he said more hopefully. "Flexen struck me
as being the kind of man to act just when it suited him, and I expect
that he had known all along anything William Roper had to tell."

"Yes, he did. Twitcher told me that Roper had an interview with him on
the afternoon after Egbert's death," she said, catching a little of his
hopefulness.

"Well, if he hasn't done anything about it so far, there's no reason why
he should act immediately the story becomes common property," he said in
a tone of relief.

"No--no," she said slowly. Then she sobbed once and cried: "But, oh, this
waiting's so dreadful! Never knowing what's going to happen and
when--feeling that he's lying in wait all the time."

"It is pretty awful," he said, drawing her more closely to him and
kissing her.

She clung tightl