hat?" said Mr. Manley, still bewildered.

Elizabeth's Twitcher's eyes lost some of their suspicion, and he heard
her breathe a faint sigh of relief.

"I thought as 'ow--as how some of them might have told you what his
lordship was going to do to her, and that she--she stuck that knife into
him so as to stop it," she said.

"What on earth are you talking about? What was his lordship going to do
to her?" cried Mr. Manley, in a tone of yet greater bewilderment.

"He was going to divorce her ladyship. He told her so last night when I
was doing her hair for dinner," said Elizabeth Twitcher.

She paused and stared at him, frowning. Then she went on: "And, like a
fool, I went and talked about it--to some one else."

Mr. Manley glared at her in a momentary speechlessness; then found his
voice and cried: "But, gracious heavens! You don't suspect her ladyship
of having murdered Lord Loudwater?"

"No, I don't. But there'll be plenty as will," said Elizabeth Twitcher
with conviction.

"It's absurd!" cried Mr. Manley.

Elizabeth Twitcher shook her head.

"You must allow as she had reason enough--for a lady, that is. He was
always swearing at her and abusing her, and it isn't at all the kind of
thing a lady can stand. And this divorce coming on the top of it all,"
she said in a dispassionate tone.

"You mustn't talk like this! There's no saying what trouble you may
make!" cried Mr. Manley in a tone of stern severity.

"I'm not going to talk like that--only to you, sir. You're a gentleman,
and it's safe. What I'm afraid of is that I've talked too much
already--last night that is," she said despondently.

"Well, don't make it worse by talking any more. And let me know when your
mistress is dressed, and I'll come up and break the news of this shocking
affair to her."

"Very good, sir," said Elizabeth, and with a gloomy face and depressed
air she went back into the Castle.

She had scarcely disappeared, when Holloway came out to tell Mr. Manley
that his breakfast was ready for him in the little dining-room. Mr.
Manley set about it with the firmness of a man preparing himself against
a strenuous day. The frown with which Elizabeth Twitcher's suggestion had
puckered his brow faded from it slowly, as the excellence of the chop he
was eating soothed him. Holloway waited on him, and Mr. Manley asked him
whether any of the servants had heard anything suspicious in the night.
Holloway assured him that none of them had.

Mr.