antage of taking him
by surprise. Those sensitive nerves of his gave way, and he betrayed the
fear that you aroused in him. Can you take him by surprise again? Not
you! He is prepared for you now; and he will be on his guard. If you
encounter nothing worse, you will have his cunning to deal with
next. Are you his match at that? But for Lady Clarinda he would have
hopelessly misled you on the subject of Mrs. Beauly."

There was no answering this, either. I was foolish enough to try to
answer it, for all that.

"He told me the truth so far as he knew it," I rejoined. "He really saw
what he said he saw in the corridor at Gleninch."

"He told you the truth," returned Mr. Playmore, "because he was
cunning enough to see that the truth would help him in irritating your
suspicions. You don't really believe that he shared your suspicions?"

"Why not?" I said. "He was as ignorant of what Mrs. Beauly was really
doing on that night as I was--until I met Lady Clarinda. It remains to
be seen whether he will not be as much astonished as I was when I tell
him what Lady Clarinda told me."

This smart reply produced an effect which I had not anticipated.

To my surprise, Mr. Playmore abruptly dropped all further discussion
on his side. He appeared to despair of convincing me, and he owned it
indirectly in his next words.

"Will nothing that I can say to you," he asked, "induce you to think as
I think in this matter?"

"I have not your ability or your experience," I answered. "I am sorry to
say I can't think as you think."

"And you are really determined to see Miserrimus Dexter again?"

"I have engaged myself to see him again."

He waited a little, and thought over it.

"You have honored me by asking for my advice," he said. "I earnestly
advise you, Mrs. Eustace, to break your engagement. I go even further
than that--I _entreat_ you not to see Dexter again."

Just what my mother-in-law had said! just what Benjamin and Major
Fitz-David had said! They were all against me. And still I held out.

I wonder, when I look back at it, at my own obstinacy. I am almost
ashamed to relate that I made Mr. Playmore no reply. He waited, still
looking at me. I felt irritated by that fixed look. I arose, and stood
before him with my eyes on the floor.

He arose in his turn. He understood that the conference was over.

"Well, well," he said, with a kind of sad good-humor, "I suppose it is
unreasonable of me to expect that a young woman l