ark, wrenching himself free.

Vincent would have accompanied him, but the excitement had turned him
suddenly faint and dizzy, and he found himself obliged to remain where
he was, until the attack passed and left him able to move and think
once more.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

CAFFYN SPRINGS HIS MINE.

'I should like your opinion about those hangings in the Gold Room,'
Caffyn had said to Mabel, for the benefit of any bystanders, as soon
as he reached her chair: 'they seem to me the very thing for the
boudoir scene in the third act. You promised to help me; would it bore
you very much to come now?'

Tired as she was, Mabel made no demur. She knew, of course, that he
wished to speak to her alone, and she had something to say to him
herself, which could not be said too soon. He led her through the room
in question--a luxurious little nest, at an angle of the house,
entered by separate doors from the music-room and the head of the
principal staircase; but he did not think it necessary to waste any
time upon the hangings, and they passed out through one of the two
windows upon the balcony, which had been covered in with striped
canvas for the season.

He drew forward a seat for her and took one himself, but did not speak
for some time. He was apparently waiting for her to begin. A
_tete-a-tete_ with a man to whom one has just forbidden one's house is
necessarily a delicate matter, and, although Mabel did not falter at
all in her purpose, she did feel a certain nervousness which made her
unwilling to speak at first.

'As you leave me to begin,' he said, 'let me ask you if what your
husband has told me just now is true--that you have closed your own
door to me, and mean to induce Mrs. Langton to do the same?'

'It is true,' she replied in a low voice; 'you left me no other
course.'

'You know what the result of that will be, I suppose?' he continued.
'Mrs. Featherstone will soon find out that two such intimate friends
of hers will have nothing to do with me, and she will naturally want
to know the reason. What shall you tell her?'

'That is what I meant to say to you!' she answered. 'I thought I ought
in fairness to tell you--that you might, perhaps, take it as a
warning. If I am asked, though I hope I shall not be, I shall feel
bound to say what I know.'

'Do you think I can't see what you are aiming at in all this?' he
asked; and under his smooth tones there were indications of coming
rage. 'You have set yoursel