fool!"

"Madam, this is not seemly," cried the second secretary, with awkward
dignity.

"Seemly, idiot?" she stormed at him. "I swear, as I've a soul to be
saved, that in spite of all this, I know that man to be a traitor and
a Jacobite--that it was the letter from the king he sought, whatever he
may pretend to have found."

Mr. Templeton looked at her in sorrow, for all that in her overwrought
condition she insulted him. "Madam, you might swear and swear, and yet
no one would believe you in the face of the facts that have come to
light."

"Do you believe me?" she demanded angrily.

"My beliefs can matter nothing," he compromised, and made her a
valedictory bow. "Your servant, ma'am," said he, from force of habit.
He nodded to Rotherby, took up his hat and cane, and strode to the door,
which Mr. Green had made haste to open for him. From the threshold he
bowed to Mr. Caryll. "My lord," said he, "I shall go straight to Lord
Carteret. He will stay for you till you come."

"I shall not keep his lordship waiting," answered Caryll, and bowed in
his turn.

The second secretary went out. Mr. Green hesitated a moment, then
abruptly followed him. The game was ended here; it was played and lost,
he saw, and what should such as Mr. Green be doing on the losing side?

CHAPTER XXIII. THE LION

The game was played and lost. All realized it, and none so keenly as
Hortensia, who found it in her gentle heart to pity the woman who had
never shown her a kindness.

She set a hand upon her lover's arm. "What will you do, Justin?" she
inquired in tones that seemed to plead for mercy for those others; for
she had not paused to think--as another might have thought--that there
was no mercy he could show them.

Rotherby and his mother stood hand in hand; it was the woman who had
clutched at her son for comfort and support in this bitter hour of
retribution, this hour of the recoil upon themselves of all the evil
they had plotted.

Mr. Caryll considered them a moment, his face a mask, his mind entirely
detached. They interested him profoundly. This subjugation of two
natures that in themselves were arrogant and cruel was a process very
engrossing to observe. He tried to conjecture what they felt, what
thoughts they might be harboring. And it seemed to him that a sort of
paralysis had fallen on their wits. They were stunned under the shock
of the blow he had dealt them. Anon there would be railings and to
spare--against hi