injury that he had inflicted on her, and the consciousness of knowing
his guilty secret, gave her all her self-possession at that trying
moment.

"I ask you again," he repeated, finding that she did not answer him,
"how dare you look me in the face in the presence of that man?"

She raised her steady eyes to his hat, which he still kept on his head.

"Who has taught you to come into a room and speak to a lady with your
hat on?" she asked, in quiet, contemptuous tones. "Is that a habit which
is sanctioned by _your new wife?_"

My eyes were on him as she said those last words. His complexion,
naturally dark and swarthy, changed instantly to a livid yellow white;
his hand caught at the chair nearest to him, and he dropped into it
heavily.

"I don't understand you," he said, after a moment of silence, looking
about the room unsteadily while he spoke.

"You do," said my mistress. "Your tongue lies, but your face speaks the
truth."

He called back his courage and audacity by a desperate effort, and
started up from the chair again with an oath.

The instant before this happened I thought I heard the sound of a
rustling dress in the passage outside, as if one of the women servants
was stealing up to listen outside the door. I should have gone at once
to see whether this was the case or not, but my master stopped me just
after he had risen from the chair.

"Get the bed made in the Red Room, and light a fire there directly," he
said, with his fiercest look and in his roughest tones. "When I ring the
bell, bring me a kettle of boiling water and a bottle of brandy. As for
you," he continued, turning toward Mr. Meeke, who still sat pale and
speechless with his fiddle hugged up in his arms, "leave the house, or
you won't find your cloth any protection to you."

At this insult the blood flew into my mistress's face. Before she could
say anything, Mr. James Smith raised his voice loud enough to drown
hers.

"I won't hear another word from you," he cried out, brutally. "You have
been talking like a mad woman, and you look like a mad woman. You are
out of your senses. As sure as you live, I'll have you examined by the
doctors to-morrow. Why the devil do you stand there, you scoundrel?"
he roared, wheeling round on his heel to me. "Why don't you obey my
orders?"

I looked at my mistress. If she had directed me to knock Mr. James Smith
down, big as he was, I think at that moment I could have done it.

"Do as he tells you,