ied. Had their host suddenly gone mad, or had those
empty bottles of Heidseck which had just been removed from his end of
the table anything to do with it? Several murmurs for an explanation
arose.

"I had forgotten for the moment," Sir Allan continued, "that none of you
are yet aware of what I have only known myself during the last few days.
I am suffering from acute heart disease, which may terminate fatally at
any moment."

A sudden awed gloom fell upon the party. Cigars were put down, and
shocked glances exchanged. A murmur of condolence arose, but Sir Allan
checked it with a little gesture.

"I need scarcely say that I did not ask you to meet me here this evening
to tell you this," he continued. "My object is a different one. I have a
confession to make."

The general bewilderment increased. The air of festivity was replaced
by a dull restrained silence. Could it be that their host's illness had
affected his brain? A painful impression to that effect had passed into
the minds of more than one of them.

"You will say, perhaps," Sir Allan continued, speaking very slowly, and
with a certain difficulty in his articulation, which did not, however,
prevent every word from being distinctly audible, "that I am choosing a
strange time and place for making a personal statement. But I see
amongst those who have done me the honor of becoming my guests to-night,
men whom I should wish to know the whole truth from my own lips--I refer
more particularly to you, Sir Philip Roden--and to-night is my last
opportunity, for to-morrow all London will know my story, and I shall be
banned forever from all converse and intercourse with my fellow-men.

"Very few words will tell my story. Most of you will remember that I
came into my title and fortune late in life. My youth was spent in
comparative poverty abroad, sometimes practicing my profession,
sometimes living merely as a student and an experimenting scientist. In
my thirtieth year I married a woman of good family, with whom I was very
much in love, so much so that in order to win her I forged a letter from
the man whom she would otherwise have married, and obtained her consent
in a fit of indignation at his supposed infidelity. That man, gentleman,
was Sir Geoffrey Kynaston."

There was a subdued murmur of astonishment. Every one's interest was
suddenly redoubled. Sir Allan proceeded, standing at the head of the
table, motionless as a statue, but with a strange look in his wh