,
Walter, on returning here, after your first journey to Hampshire, by
the lawyer's men for some distance from the railway, and by the Count
himself to the door of the house. How he contrived to escape being
seen by you he did not tell me, but he found us out on that occasion,
and in that way. Having made the discovery, he took no advantage of it
till the news reached him of Sir Percival's death, and then, as I told
you, he acted for himself, because he believed you would next proceed
against the dead man's partner in the conspiracy. He at once made his
arrangements to meet the owner of the Asylum in London, and to take him
to the place where his runaway patient was hidden, believing that the
results, whichever way they ended, would be to involve you in
interminable legal disputes and difficulties, and to tie your hands for
all purposes of offence, so far as he was concerned. That was his
purpose, on his own confession to me. The only consideration which made
him hesitate, at the last moment----"

"Yes?"

"It is hard to acknowledge it, Walter, and yet I must. I was the only
consideration. No words can say how degraded I feel in my own
estimation when I think of it, but the one weak point in that man's
iron character is the horrible admiration he feels for me. I have
tried, for the sake of my own self-respect, to disbelieve it as long as
I could; but his looks, his actions, force on me the shameful
conviction of the truth. The eyes of that monster of wickedness
moistened while he was speaking to me--they did, Walter! He declared
that at the moment of pointing out the house to the doctor, he thought
of my misery if I was separated from Laura, of my responsibility if I
was called on to answer for effecting her escape, and he risked the
worst that you could do to him, the second time, for my sake. All he
asked was that I would remember the sacrifice, and restrain your
rashness, in my own interests--interests which he might never be able
to consult again. I made no such bargain with him--I would have died
first. But believe him or not, whether it is true or false that he sent
the doctor away with an excuse, one thing is certain, I saw the man
leave him without so much as a glance at our window, or even at our
side of the way."

"I believe it, Marian. The best men are not consistent in good--why
should the worst men be consistent in evil? At the same time, I suspect
him of merely attempting to frighten you, by th