ike you should share
any opinion with an old lawyer like me. Let me only remind you that our
conversation must remain strictly confidential for the present; and then
let us change the subject. Is there anything that I can do for you? Are
you alone in Edinburgh?"

"No. I am traveling with an old friend of mine, who has known me from
childhood."

"And do you stay here to-morrow?"

"I think so."

"Will you do me one favor? Will you think over what has passed between
us, and will you come back to me in the morning?"

"Willingly, Mr. Playmore, if it is only to thank you again for your
kindness."

On that understanding we parted. He sighed--the cheerful man sighed, as
he opened the door for me. Women are contradictory creatures. That sigh
affected me more than all his arguments. I felt myself blush for my own
head-strong resistance to him as I took my leave and turned away into
the street.

CHAPTER XXXIV. GLENINCH.

"AHA!" said Benjamin, complacently. "So the lawyer thinks, as I do,
that you will be highly imprudent if you go back to Mr. Dexter? A
hard-headed, sensible man the lawyer, no doubt. You will listen to Mr.
Playmore, won't you, though you wouldn't listen to me?"

(I had of course respected Mr. Playmore's confidence in me when Benjamin
and I met on my return to the hotel. Not a word relating to the lawyer's
horrible suspicion of Miserrimus Dexter had passed my lips.)

"You must forgive me, my old friend," I said, answering Benjamin. "I
am afraid it has come to this--try as I may, I can listen to nobody
who advises me. On our way here I honestly meant to be guided by Mr.
Playmore--we should never have taken this long journey if I had
not honestly meant it. I have tried, tried hard to be a teachable,
reasonable woman. But there is something in me that won't be taught. I
am afraid I shall go back to Dexter."

Even Benjamin lost all patience with me this time.

"What is bred in the bone," he said, quoting the old proverb, "will
never come out of the flesh. In years gone by, you were the most
obstinate child that ever made a mess in a nursery. Oh, dear me, we
might as well have stayed in London."

"No," I replied, "now we have traveled to Edinburgh, we will see
something (interesting to _me_ at any rate) which we should never have
seen if we had not left London. My husband's country-house is within a
few miles of us here. To-morrow--we will go to Gleninch."

"Where the poor lady was poisoned?" asked