Fairlie's conduct to her in the matter of her legacy, and on half a
dozen other subjects besides, until she had detained me walking round
and round the fish-pond for more than half an hour, and had quite
wearied me out. Whether she discovered this or not, I cannot say, but
she stopped as abruptly as she had begun--looked towards the house
door, resumed her icy manner in a moment, and dropped my arm of her own
accord before I could think of an excuse for accomplishing my own
release from her.

As I pushed open the door and entered the hall, I found myself suddenly
face to face with the Count again. He was just putting a letter into
the post-bag.

After he had dropped it in and had closed the bag, he asked me where I
had left Madame Fosco. I told him, and he went out at the hall door
immediately to join his wife. His manner when he spoke to me was so
unusually quiet and subdued that I turned and looked after him,
wondering if he were ill or out of spirits.

Why my next proceeding was to go straight up to the post-bag and take
out my own letter and look at it again, with a vague distrust on me,
and why the looking at it for the second time instantly suggested the
idea to my mind of sealing the envelope for its greater security--are
mysteries which are either too deep or too shallow for me to fathom.
Women, as everybody knows, constantly act on impulses which they cannot
explain even to themselves, and I can only suppose that one of those
impulses was the hidden cause of my unaccountable conduct on this
occasion.

Whatever influence animated me, I found cause to congratulate myself on
having obeyed it as soon as I prepared to seal the letter in my own
room. I had originally closed the envelope in the usual way by
moistening the adhesive point and pressing it on the paper beneath, and
when I now tried it with my finger, after a lapse of full
three-quarters of an hour, the envelope opened on the instant, without
sticking or tearing. Perhaps I had fastened it insufficiently? Perhaps
there might have been some defect in the adhesive gum?

Or, perhaps----No! it is quite revolting enough to feel that third
conjecture stirring in my mind. I would rather not see it confronting
me in plain black and white.

I almost dread to-morrow--so much depends on my discretion and
self-control. There are two precautions, at all events, which I am
sure not to forget. I must be careful to keep up friendly appearances
with the Co