nly
find out too late.'

'But, surely, my lady, Lady Mary will leave Fellside to go to a home of
her own after her marriage.'

'No, I tell you, Steadman,' his mistress answered, with a touch of
impatience; 'Lady Mary and her husband will make this house their home
so long as I am here. It will not be long.'

'God grant it may be very long before you cease to be mistress here,'
answered Steadman, with real feeling; and then in a lower tone he went
on: 'Pardon me, my lady, for the suggestion, but do you think it wise to
have Mr. Hammond here as a resident?'

'Why should it not be wise? Mr. Hammond is a gentleman.'

'True, my lady; but any accident, such as that which brought Lady Mary
into the old garden----'

'No such accident need occur--it must not occur, Steadman,' exclaimed
Lady Maulevrier, with kindling eyes. She who had so long ruled supreme
was not inclined to have any desire of hers questioned. 'There must have
been gross carelessness that day--carelessness on your part, or that
stable door would never have been left open. The key ought to have been
in your possession It ought not to have been in the power of the
stableman to open that door. As to Mr. Hammond's presence at Fellside, I
cannot see any danger--any reason why harm should come of it, more than
of Lord Maulevrier's presence here in the past.'

'The two gentlemen are so different, my lady,' said Steadman, with a
gloomy brow. 'His lordship is so light-hearted and careless, his mind
taken up with his horses, guns, dogs, fishing, shooting, and all kinds
of sport. He is not a gentleman to take much notice of anything out of
his own line. But this Mr. Hammond is different--a very thoughtful
gentleman, an inquiring mind, as one would say.'

'Steadman, you are getting cowardly in your old age. The danger--such a
risk as you hint at, must be growing less and less every day. After
forty years of security----'

'Security' echoed Steadman, with a monosyllabic laugh which expressed
intense bitterness. 'Say forty years during which I have felt myself
upon the edge of a precipice every day and every hour. Security! But
perhaps you are right, my lady, I am growing old and nervous, a feebler
man than I was a few years ago, feebler in body and mind. Let Mr.
Hammond make his home here, if it pleases your ladyship to have him. So
long as I am well and able to get about there can be no danger of
anything awkward happening.'

Lady Maulevrier looked alarmed.