two ways of trying to
obtain it. One of them is to question the doctor, Mr. Dawson, who must
know when he resumed his attendance at Blackwater Park after Laura left
the house. The other is to make inquiries at the inn to which Sir
Percival drove away by himself at night. We know that his departure
followed Laura's after the lapse of a few hours, and we may get at the
date in that way. The attempt is at least worth making, and to-morrow
I am determined it shall be made."

"And suppose it fails--I look at the worst now, Walter; but I will look
at the best if disappointments come to try us--suppose no one can help
you at Blackwater?"

"There are two men who can help me, and shall help me in London--Sir
Percival and the Count. Innocent people may well forget the date--but
THEY are guilty, and THEY know it. If I fail everywhere else, I mean
to force a confession out of one or both of them on my own terms."

All the woman flushed up in Marian's face as I spoke.

"Begin with the Count," she whispered eagerly. "For my sake, begin
with the Count."

"We must begin, for Laura's sake, where there is the best chance of
success," I replied.

The colour faded from her face again, and she shook her head sadly.

"Yes," she said, "you are right--it was mean and miserable of me to say
that. I try to be patient, Walter, and succeed better now than I did
in happier times. But I have a little of my old temper still left, and
it will get the better of me when I think of the Count!"

"His turn will come," I said. "But, remember, there is no weak place
in his life that we know of yet." I waited a little to let her recover
her self-possession, and then spoke the decisive words--

"Marian! There is a weak place we both know of in Sir Percival's
life----"

"You mean the Secret!"

"Yes: the Secret. It is our only sure hold on him. I can force him
from his position of security, I can drag him and his villainy into the
face of day, by no other means. Whatever the Count may have done, Sir
Percival has consented to the conspiracy against Laura from another
motive besides the motive of gain. You heard him tell the Count that
he believed his wife knew enough to ruin him? You heard him say that he
was a lost man if the secret of Anne Catherick was known?"

"Yes! yes! I did."

"Well, Marian, when our other resources have failed us, I mean to know
the Secret. My old superstition clings to me, even yet. I say again
the woman