ant, he will, no doubt, make an appointment to meet you."

"But you!" cried Chester, returning to the attack, "you deny that you
know me?"

"Certainly, sir, I do not know you," replied the housekeeper.

"Had you not better dismiss this man?"

"No, no," said the housekeeper, smiling; and there was a very sweet look
on her handsome old face. "There is no occasion for that. Pray take my
advice; go back home and write what you wish to say."

"After what has passed, madam, I can hold no communication with Mr
Clareborough."

"Indeed! Well, sir, of course all you say is foreign to me, but I must
tell you that it seems the only course open; so much can be done by
letter."

"Then, as I understand," said Chester, more quietly, "you refuse to give
me a few words alone?"

"Yes, sir; you can have nothing to say to me that Mr Roach, the butler,
may not hear."

Chester looked at the woman fixedly, but she met his gaze in the calmest
way--not a muscle moved, not a nerve quivered.

"Very well," he said at last, "I see you are determined to ignore the
past entirely."

The housekeeper made a slight deprecatory movement toward him, and then
signed the butler to open the door, which he did with alacrity, but
Chester stood fast, looking past the housekeeper toward the end of the
hall, where there was the opening into the great dining-room, the scene
of the strange adventure when he first came to the house.

"Very well," he said at last, as he mastered a wild desire to rush
upstairs and call Marion by name until she replied; and he spoke now in
a subdued tone of voice which the butler could not hear, "of course you
are in the plot, but I shall not let matters rest here. It would have
been better if you had met me as a friend--as I believed you to be--of
Miss Marion and Mr Robert, but I see that you are bound up with the
others. And mind this: I was disposed to assist in hushing up that
trouble, but as I am convinced that Miss Marion is receiving foul play,
I shall leave no stone unturned to obtain speech with her, even going so
far, if necessary, as to call in the aid of the police."

There was a calm, grave, pitying look upon the housekeeper's countenance
which literally staggered Chester, and he went out quickly and turned to
the right, the butler closing the door with a bang.

"He's a regular lunatic, ma'am," said the butler. "Got hold of the
names from the Directory or the tradesfolk; but I'm very glad you were
the