ffairs. Knowing, and desiring to know nothing of those
affairs, and doubting whether he would approve, as a man of business,
of my conduct in relation to my wife's life-interest in the legacy left
to Madame Fosco, I begged Mr. Kyrle to excuse me if I abstained from
discussing the subject. It was connected, as I could truly tell him,
with those sorrows and troubles of the past which we never referred to
among ourselves, and which we instinctively shrank from discussing with
others.

My last labour, as the evening approached, was to obtain "The Narrative
of the Tombstone," by taking a copy of the false inscription on the
grave before it was erased.

The day came--the day when Laura once more entered the familiar
breakfast-room at Limmeridge House. All the persons assembled rose
from their seats as Marian and I led her in. A perceptible shock of
surprise, an audible murmur of interest ran through them, at the sight
of her face. Mr. Fairlie was present (by my express stipulation), with
Mr. Kyrle by his side. His valet stood behind him with a
smelling-bottle ready in one hand, and a white handkerchief, saturated
with eau-de-Cologne, in the other.

I opened the proceedings by publicly appealing to Mr. Fairlie to say
whether I appeared there with his authority and under his express
sanction. He extended an arm, on either side, to Mr. Kyrle and to his
valet--was by them assisted to stand on his legs, and then expressed
himself in these terms: "Allow me to present Mr. Hartright. I am as
great an invalid as ever, and he is so very obliging as to speak for
me. The subject is dreadfully embarrassing. Please hear him, and
don't make a noise!" With those words he slowly sank back again into
the chair, and took refuge in his scented pocket-handkerchief.

The disclosure of the conspiracy followed, after I had offered my
preliminary explanation, first of all, in the fewest and the plainest
words. I was there present (I informed my hearers) to declare, first,
that my wife, then sitting by me, was the daughter of the late Mr.
Philip Fairlie; secondly, to prove by positive facts, that the funeral
which they had attended in Limmeridge churchyard was the funeral of
another woman; thirdly, to give them a plain account of how it had all
happened. Without further preface, I at once read the narrative of the
conspiracy, describing it in clear outline, and dwelling only upon the
pecuniary motive for it, in order to avoid complic