t he considered a fit of
vapours of the previous night was passed away. He looked with eagerness
to an interview with Fanny. Proud of his intellect, pleased in any of
those sinister exercises of it which the code and habits of his life so
long permitted to him, he regarded the conquest of his fair adversary
with the interest of a scientific game. Harriet went to Fanny's room to
prepare her to receive her host; and Lord Lilburne now resolved to make
his own visit the less unwelcome by reserving for his especial gift
some showy, if not valuable, trinkets, which for similar purposes never
failed the depositories of the villa he had purchased for his pleasures.
He, recollected that these gewgaws were placed in the bureau in the
study; in which, as having a lock of foreign and intricate workmanship,
he usually kept whatever might tempt cupidity in those frequent absences
when the house was left guarded but by two women servants. Finding that
Fanny had not yet quitted her own chamber, while Harriet went up to
attend and reason with her, he himself limped into the study below,
unlocked the bureau, and was searching in the drawers, when he heard the
voice of Fanny above, raised a little as if in remonstrance or entreaty;
and he paused to listen. He could not, however, distinguish what was
said; and in the meanwhile, without attending much to what he was about,
his bands were still employed in opening and shutting the drawers,
passing through the pigeon-holes, and feeling for a topaz brooch, which
he thought could not fail of pleasing the unsophisticated eyes of Fanny.
One of the recesses was deeper than the rest; he fancied the brooch
was there; he stretched his hand into the recess; and, as the room was
partially darkened by the lower shutters from without, which were still
unclosed to prevent any attempted escape of his captive, he had only
the sense of touch to depend on; not finding the brooch, he stretched on
till he came to the extremity of the recess, and was suddenly sensible
of a sharp pain; the flesh seemed caught as in a trap; he drew back
his finger with sudden force and a half-suppressed exclamation, and he
perceived the bottom or floor of the pigeon-hole recede, as if sliding
back. His curiosity was aroused; he again felt warily and cautiously,
and discovered a very slight inequality and roughness at the extremity
of the recess. He was aware instantly that there was some secret spring;
he pressed with some force on