he green leaves, and wood pigeons cooed in the hollow
trunks of the trees, beneath whose outspreading branches, little
four-footed creatures gamboled and made merry among the soft feathery
grasses that grew in the fine old beech woods of Devon. It was pleasant
to listen to the cool, gurgling sound of the brawling brook, whose
bright waters skipped, danced and glittered, as they forced their way
over the pebbles and other impediments in their serpentine course along
the shady dell that skirted the Home Park, wherein, under the venerable
oaks, the red and fallow deer rested, dreamily sniffing the delicious
fragrance that pervaded the air, borne upon the light summer wind from
the rich parterre which stretched the entire length of the south wing at
Vellenaux.

In a large octagon-shaped apartment that had been fitted up as a
library, the most pleasing feature of which was its Southern aspect,
were seated _tete a tete_ two personages, who figured somewhat
conspicuously in the early part of our story, these were Mrs. Fraudhurst
and Sir Ralph Coleman. They had met here at the request of the Baronet,
for Sir Ralph and the widow rarely met except by appointment or at the
dinner table.

Time had dealt kindly with the lady, and what was deficient by nature
was supplied by art, for she was one of those who always paid the most
scrupulous attention to their toilette. If we were to describe her as
fat, fair, and forty, we should certainly wrong her. Fair and forty she
undoubtedly was, but fat she certainly was not. There was a slight
tendency to embonpoint, but this was relieved by her tall and not
ungraceful figure. She was what might be termed a decidedly handsome
woman. The corpulent lawyer had subsided into the sleek,
well-conditioned country gentleman. But there was at times a certain
restlessness of the eye, and a nervous twitching at the corners of the
mouth, which, to a keen observer, would indicate that he was not always
the quiet, self-possessed person that he would have his neighbors to
believe. The business on which they had met had been interrupted by the
entrance of a servant with a note to Sir Ralph, but, on his leaving the
room, the conversation was resumed by Mrs. Fraudhurst saying:

"I would much rather, Sir Ralph, that this subject be now discontinued,
and never again reverted to. The papers to which you allude are
perfectly safe in my hands, and I do not see that any good could accrue
by my transferring them to