osedly. "A
secret for your private ear! She has no uncle and aunt. Another little
turn before I explain myself--another little turn to compose your
spirits."

She took him into custody once more, and marched him back toward the
house.

"Mr. Noel!" she said, suddenly stopping in the middle of the walk. "Do
you know what was the worst mischief you ever did yourself in your life?
I will tell you. That worst mischief was sending me to Zurich."

His hand began to tremble on her arm once more.

"I didn't do it!" he cried piteously. "It was all Mr. Bygrave."

"You acknowledge, sir, that Mr. Bygrave deceived _me?_" proceeded Mrs.
Lecount. "I am glad to hear that. You will be all the readier to make
the next discovery which is waiting for you--the discovery that Mr.
Bygrave has deceived _you_. He is not here to slip through my fingers
now, and I am not the helpless woman in this place that I was at
Aldborough. Thank God!"

She uttered that devout exclamation through her set teeth. All her
hatred of Captain Wragge hissed out of her lips in those two words.

"Oblige me, sir, by holding one side of my traveling-bag," she resumed,
"while I open it and take something out."

The interior of the bag disclosed a series of neatly-folded papers, all
laid together in order, and numbered outside. Mrs. Lecount took out one
of the papers, and shut up the bag again with a loud snap of the spring
that closed it.

"At Aldborough, Mr. Noel, I had only my own opinion to support me," she
remarked. "My own opinion was nothing against Miss Bygrave's youth and
beauty, and Mr. Bygrave's ready wit. I could only hope to attack your
infatuation with proofs, and at that time I had not got them. I have got
them now! I am armed at all points with proofs; I bristle from head to
foot with proofs; I break my forced silence, and speak with the emphasis
of my proofs. Do you know this writing, sir?"

He shrank back from the paper which she offered to him.

"I don't understand this," he said, nervously. "I don't know what you
want, or what you mean."

Mrs. Lecount forced the paper into his hand. "You shall know what I
mean, sir, if you will give me a moment's attention," she said. "On
the day after you went away to St. Crux, I obtained admission to Mr.
Bygrave's house, and I had some talk in private with Mr. Bygrave's wife.
That talk supplied me with the means to convince you which I had wanted
to find for weeks and weeks past. I wrote you a letter t