had always known as the Countess of Ostermore.

"Fortunate is it for me," said Mr. Caryll, "that I should have possessed
myself of these proofs in time. Does it need more to show how urgent
might be the need for my suppression--how little faith can be attached
to an accusation levelled against me from such a quarter?"

"By God--" began Rotherby, but his mother clutched his wrist.

"Be still, fool!" she hissed in his ear. She had need to keep her wits
about her, to think, to weigh each word that she might utter. An
abyss had opened in her path; a false step, and she and her son were
irrevocably lost--sent headlong to destruction. Rotherby, already
reduced to the last stage of fear, was obedient as he had never been,
and fell silent instantly.

Mr. Templeton folded the papers, rose, and proffered them to their
owner. "Have you any means of proving that this was the document you
sought?" he inquired.

"I can prove that it was the document he found." It was Hortensia who
spoke; she had advanced to her lover's side, and she controlled her
amazement to bear witness for him. "I was present in this room when he
went through that desk, as all in the house know; and I can swear to his
having found that paper in it."

Mr. Templeton bowed. "My lord," he said to Caryll, "your contentions
appear clear. It is a matter in which I fear I can go no further; nor
do I now think that the secretary of state would approve of my issuing
a warrant upon such testimony as we have received. The matter is one for
Lord Carteret himself."

"I shall do myself the honor of waiting upon his lordship within the
hour," said the new Lord Ostermore. "As for the letter which it is
alleged I brought from France--from the Pretender,"--he was smiling now,
a regretful, deprecatory smile, "it is a fortunate circumstance that,
being suspected by that very man Green, who stands yonder, I was
subjected, upon my arrival in England, to a thorough search at
Maidstone--a search, it goes without saying, that yielded nothing. I was
angry at the time, at the indignity I was forced to endure. We little
know what the future may hold. And to-day I am thankful to have that
evidence to rebut this charge."

"Your lordship is indeed to be congratulated," Mr. Templeton agreed.
"You are thus in a position to clear yourself of even a shadow of
suspicion."

"You fool!" cried she who until that hour had been Countess of
Ostermore, turning fiercely upon Mr. Templeton. "You