t the last resource? It was
doubtful--more than doubtful. And yet, hopeless as the experiment
seemed, surely it was worth trying. I resolved to try it in sheer
despair of knowing what better to do.

"Your uncle shall know the wish you have just expressed," I said, "and
I will ask the lawyer's advice on the subject as well. Good may come
of it--and will come of it, I hope."

Saying that I rose again, and again Laura tried to make me resume my
seat.

"Don't leave me," she said uneasily. "My desk is on that table. You
can write here."

It tried me to the quick to refuse her, even in her own interests. But
we had been too long shut up alone together already. Our chance of
seeing each other again might entirely depend on our not exciting any
fresh suspicions. It was full time to show myself, quietly and
unconcernedly, among the wretches who were at that very moment,
perhaps, thinking of us and talking of us downstairs. I explained the
miserable necessity to Laura, and prevailed on her to recognise it as I
did.

"I will come back again, love, in an hour or less," I said. "The worst
is over for to-day. Keep yourself quiet and fear nothing."

"Is the key in the door, Marian? Can I lock it on the inside?"

"Yes, here is the key. Lock the door, and open it to nobody until I
come upstairs again."

I kissed her and left her. It was a relief to me as I walked away to
hear the key turned in the lock, and to know that the door was at her
own command.

VIII

June 19th.--I had only got as far as the top of the stairs when the
locking of Laura's door suggested to me the precaution of also locking
my own door, and keeping the key safely about me while I was out of the
room. My journal was already secured with other papers in the table
drawer, but my writing materials were left out. These included a seal
bearing the common device of two doves drinking out of the same cup,
and some sheets of blotting-paper, which had the impression on them of
the closing lines of my writing in these pages traced during the past
night. Distorted by the suspicion which had now become a part of
myself, even such trifles as these looked too dangerous to be trusted
without a guard--even the locked table drawer seemed to be not
sufficiently protected in my absence until the means of access to it
had been carefully secured as well.

I found no appearance of any one having entered the room while I had
been talking with Laura. My