ghtforward answer to
Laura's question, and yet, under the circumstances, it was not
satisfactory. If Mr. Merriman had been specially sent for by his
client, there would have been nothing very wonderful in his leaving
town to obey the summons. But when a lawyer travels from London to
Hampshire without being sent for, and when his arrival at a gentleman's
house seriously startles the gentleman himself, it may be safely taken
for granted that the legal visitor is the bearer of some very important
and very unexpected news--news which may be either very good or very
bad, but which cannot, in either case, be of the common everyday kind.

Laura and I sat silent at the table for a quarter of an hour or more,
wondering uneasily what had happened, and waiting for the chance of Sir
Percival's speedy return. There were no signs of his return, and we
rose to leave the room.

The Count, attentive as usual, advanced from the corner in which he had
been feeding his cockatoo, with the bird still perched on his shoulder,
and opened the door for us. Laura and Madame Fosco went out first.
Just as I was on the point of following them he made a sign with his
hand, and spoke to me, before I passed him, in the oddest manner.

"Yes," he said, quietly answering the unexpressed idea at that moment
in my mind, as if I had plainly confided it to him in so many
words--"yes, Miss Halcombe, something HAS happened."

I was on the point of answering, "I never said so," but the vicious
cockatoo ruffled his clipped wings and gave a screech that set all my
nerves on edge in an instant, and made me only too glad to get out of
the room.

I joined Laura at the foot of the stairs. The thought in her mind was
the same as the thought in mine, which Count Fosco had surprised, and
when she spoke her words were almost the echo of his. She, too, said
to me secretly that she was afraid something had happened.

III

June 16th.--I have a few lines more to add to this day's entry before I
go to bed to-night.

About two hours after Sir Percival rose from the luncheon-table to
receive his solicitor, Mr. Merriman, in the library, I left my room
alone to take a walk in the plantations. Just as I was at the end of
the landing the library door opened and the two gentlemen came out.
Thinking it best not to disturb them by appearing on the stairs, I
resolved to defer going down till they had crossed the hall. Although
they spoke to each other in guarded to