ercival, come at once to the point, and
then I shall know what to do. Where is the danger of your position at
the present moment?"

"Anne Catherick is in this neighbourhood, and in communication with
Lady Glyde--there's the danger, plain enough. Who can read the letter
she hid in the sand, and not see that my wife is in possession of the
Secret, deny it as she may?"

"One moment, Percival. If Lady Glyde does know the Secret, she must
know also that it is a compromising secret for you. As your wife,
surely it is her interest to keep it?"

"Is it? I'm coming to that. It might be her interest if she cared two
straws about me. But I happen to be an encumbrance in the way of
another man. She was in love with him before she married me--she's in
love with him now--an infernal vagabond of a drawing-master, named
Hartright."

"My dear friend! what is there extraordinary in that? They are all in
love with some other man. Who gets the first of a woman's heart? In
all my experience I have never yet met with the man who was Number One.
Number Two, sometimes. Number Three, Four, Five, often. Number One,
never! He exists, of course--but I have not met with him."

"Wait! I haven't done yet. Who do you think helped Anne Catherick to
get the start, when the people from the mad-house were after her?
Hartright. Who do you think saw her again in Cumberland? Hartright.
Both times he spoke to her alone. Stop! don't interrupt me. The
scoundrel's as sweet on my wife as she is on him. He knows the Secret,
and she knows the Secret. Once let them both get together again, and
it's her interest and his interest to turn their information against
me."

"Gently, Percival--gently! Are you insensible to the virtue of Lady
Glyde?"

"That for the virtue of Lady Glyde! I believe in nothing about her but
her money. Don't you see how the case stands? She might be harmless
enough by herself; but if she and that vagabond Hartright----"

"Yes, yes, I see. Where is Mr. Hartright?"

"Out of the country. If he means to keep a whole skin on his bones, I
recommend him not to come back in a hurry."

"Are you sure he is out of the country?"

"Certain. I had him watched from the time he left Cumberland to the
time he sailed. Oh, I've been careful, I can tell you! Anne Catherick
lived with some people at a farmhouse near Limmeridge. I went there
myself, after she had given me the slip, and made sure that they knew
nothing. I gave her