s. I can say no more. And let us never again speak of the past."

And this was all that Lord Chetwynde said.

CHAPTER LIX.

ON THE ROAD.

Before Lord Chetwynde left Lausanne the doctor told him all about the
poison and the antidote. He enlarged with great enthusiasm upon Lady
Chetwynde's devotion and foresight; but his information caused Lord
Chetwynde to meditate deeply upon this thing. Hilda found out that
the doctor had said this, and gave her explanation. She said that the
valet had described the symptoms; that she had asked a London doctor,
who suspected poison, and gave her an antidote. She herself, she
said, did not know what to think of it, but had naturally suspected
the valet. She had charged him with it on her arrival. He had looked
very much confused, and had immediately fled from the place. His
guilt, in her opinion, had been confirmed by his flight. To her
opinion Lord Chetwynde assented, and concluded that his valet wished
to plunder him. He now recalled many suspicious circumstances about
him, and remembered that he had taken the man without asking any one
about him, satisfied with the letters of recommendation which he had
brought, and which he had not taken the trouble to verify. He now
believed that these letters were all no better than forgeries, and
that he had well-nigh fallen a victim to one of the worst of
villains. In his mind this revelation of the doctor only gave a new
claim upon his gratitude toward the woman who had rescued him.

Shortly after he started for Italy. Hilda went with him. His position
was embarrassing. Here was a woman to whom he lay under the deepest
obligations, whose tender and devoted love was manifested in every
word and action, and yet he was utterly incapable of reciprocating
that love. She was beautiful, but her beauty did not affect him; she
was, as he thought, his wife, yet he could never be a husband to her.
Her piteous appeal bad moved his heart, and forced him to take her
with him, yet he was looking forward impatiently for some opportunity
of leaving her. He could think of India only as the place which was
likely to give him this opportunity, and concluded that after a short
stay in Florence he would leave for the East, and resume his old
duties. Before leaving Lausanne he wrote to the authorities in
England, and applied to be reinstated in some position in the Indian
service, which he had not yet quitted, or, if possible, to go back to
his old pl