proved her extreme
sanity, to him it was no more than the culminating proof of her mental
distemper.

"Pish!" he said, between anger and pity, "you are mad, stark mad! Your
mind's unhinged, your vision's all distorted. This fiend incarnate is
become a poor victim of the evil of others; and I am become a murderer
in your sight--a murderer and a fool. God's Life! Bah! Anon when you are
rested, when you are restored, I pray that things may once again assume
their proper aspect."

He turned, all aquiver still with indignation, and was barely in time to
avoid being struck by the door which opened suddenly from without.

Lord Henry Goade, dressed--as he tells us--entirely in black, and with
his gold chain of office--an ominous sign could they have read it--upon
his broad chest, stood in the doorway, silhouetted sharply against the
flood of morning sunlight at his back. His benign face would, no doubt,
be extremely grave to match the suit he had put on, but its expression
will have lightened somewhat when his glance fell upon Rosamund standing
there by the table's edge.

"I was overjoyed," he writes, "to find her so far recovered, and seeming
so much herself again, and I expressed my satisfaction."

"She were better abed," snapped Sir John, two hectic spots burning still
in his sallow cheeks. "She is distempered, quite."

"Sir John is mistaken, my lord," was her calm assurance, "I am very far
from suffering as he conceives."

"I rejoice therein, my dear," said his lordship, and I imagine his
questing eyes speeding from one to the other of them, and marking the
evidences of Sir John's temper, wondering what could have passed. "It
happens," he added sombrely, "that we may require your testimony in this
grave matter that is toward." He turned to Sir John. "I have bidden
them bring up the prisoner for sentence. Is the ordeal too much for you,
Rosamund?"

"Indeed, no, my lord," she replied readily. "I welcome it." And threw
back her head as one who braces herself for a trial of endurance.

"No, no," cut in Sir John, protesting fiercely. "Do not heed her, Harry.
She...."

"Considering," she interrupted, "that the chief count against the
prisoner must concern his... his dealings with myself, surely the matter
is one upon which I should be heard."

"Surely, indeed," Lord Henry agreed, a little bewildered, he confesses,
"always provided you are certain it will not overtax your endurance and
distress you overmuch. We coul