to me
so harshly," she said, "when I'm sorry for what I've done, and am only
anxious to prevent harm coming of it."

_"What_ have you done?" cried honest Amelius, weary of the woman's
inveterately indirect way of explaining herself to him.

The flash of his quick temper in his eyes, as he put that
straightforward question, roused a responsive temper in Phoebe which
stung her into speaking openly at last. She told Amelius what she had
heard in the kitchen as plainly as she had told it to Jervy--with this
one difference, that she spoke without insolence when she referred to
Mrs. Farnaby.

Listening in silence until she had done, Amelius started to his feet,
and opening the cabinet, took from it Mrs. Farnaby's letter. He read the
letter, keeping his back towards Phoebe--waited a moment thinking--and
suddenly turned on the woman with a look that made her shrink in her
chair. "You wretch!" he said; "you detestable wretch!"

In the terror of the moment, Phoebe attempted to leave the room. Amelius
stopped her instantly. "Sit down again," he said; "I mean to have the
whole truth out of you, now."

Phoebe recovered her courage. "You have had the whole truth, sir; I
could tell you no more if I was on my deathbed."

Amelius refused to believe her. "There is a vile conspiracy against Mrs.
Farnaby," he said. "Do you mean to tell me you are not in it?"

"So help me God, sir, I never even heard of it till yesterday!"

The tone in which she spoke shook the conviction of Amelius; the
indescribable ring of truth was in it.

"There are two people who are cruelly deluding and plundering this poor
lady," he went on. "Who are they?"

"I told you, if you remember, that I couldn't mention names, sir."

Amelius looked again at the letter. After what he had heard, there was
no difficulty in identifying the invisible "young man," alluded to by
Mrs. Farnaby, with the unnamed "person" in whom Phoebe was interested.
Who was he? As the question passed through his mind, Amelius remembered
the vagabond whom he had recognized with Phoebe, in the street. There
was no doubt of it now--the man who was directing the conspiracy in the
dark was Jervy! Amelius would unquestionably have been rash enough
to reveal this discovery, if Phoebe had not stopped him. His renewed
reference to Mrs. Farnaby's letter and his sudden silence after looking
at it roused the woman's suspicions. "If you're planning to get my
friend into trouble," she burst out, "no