"Harriet," said Routh—"Harriet, don't give
way like this.  It's awful—it's worse than
anything I ever thought of, or feared. But don't
give way like this."

"I am not giving way," she said. Drawing
her hands from his hold, she raised them to
her head, and held them pressed to her temples
while she spoke. "I will not give way. Trust
me, as you have done before. This, then, is
what I have felt coming nearer and nearer, like
a danger in the dark—this—this dreadful truth.
It is better known than vague. Tell me how
you have discovered it."

He began to walk up and down the room,
and she still sat cowering in her chair, her
hands pressing her temples her eyes, with their
horror-stricken looks, following him.

"I discovered it by an extraordinary accident.
I have not seen much of Dallas, as you
know, and I know nothing in particular about Mr.
Felton and his son. But. there is a lady here—
an American widow—who knows Felton well."

"Yes," said Harriet, with distinctness; and
now she sat upright in her chair, and her low
white brow was knitted over her horror-stricken
eyes. "Yes, I have seen her."

"Have you indeed? Ah! well, then, you
know who I mean. She and he were great
friends—lovers, I fancy," Routh went on, with
painful effort; ''and when they parted in Paris,
it was with an understanding that they were to
meet here just about this time. She met George
Dallas, and told him, not that, but something
which made him understand that information
was to be had from her, and she has appointed
an interview with Mr. Felton for to-morrow."

"Yes," repeated Harriet, "I understand.
When she and he meet, she will tell him his son
is coming here. His son will not come. How
did you discover what you have discovered?"

He took out of his pocket a large locket
like a golden egg, and opened it by touching a
spring. It opened lengthwise, and he held it
towards Harriet. She looked at one of the
photographs which it enclosed, and then, pushing
it from her, covered her face with her hands.

"She showed me that yesterday," Routh
continued, his throat drier, his voice more
hesitating with every word he spoke, "when she
told me she was expecting him—and I contrived
to secure it."

"For what purpose?" asked Harriet,
hoarsely.

"Don't you see, Harriet," he said earnestly,
"that it is quite plain Dallas has never seen a
likeness of his cousin, or he must have
recognised the face. Evidently Mr. Felton has not
one with him. Dallas might not have seen
this; but then, on the other hand, he might;
and to prevent his seeing it, even for a few
hours, until we had time to talk it over, to gain
ever so little time, was a great object."

"You took a strange way of gaining time,
Stewart, " said Harriet.  "Had you come home
last night in a state to tell me the truth, time
would really have been gained.  We might have
got away this morning."

"Got away!" said Routh. "What do you
mean?  What good could that do?"

"Can you seriously ask me?" she returned.
"Does any other course suggest itself to you?"

"I don't know, Harry. I am bewildered.
The shock was so great that the only thing I
could think of was to try and forget it for a
little. I don't know that I ever in my life
deliberately drank for the purpose of confusing my
thoughts. or postponing them, before; but I could
not help it, Harry. The discovery was so far
from any apprehension or fancy I had ever had."

"The time was, Stewart," said Harriet,
slowly and with meaning, "when, instead of
'confusing' or 'postponing' any trouble, dread,
or difficulty, you would have brought any or all
of them to me at once; unhappily for us both,
I think that time is past."

He glanced at her sharply and uneasily, and
an angry flush passed over his face.

"What cursed folly have you got in your
head? Is it not enough that this fresh danger
has come down upon me——"

"Upon us, you mean," she interrupted,
calmly.

" Well, upon us, then; but you must get up
an injured air, and go on with I don't know
what folly? Have done with it; this is no time
for womanish nonsense——"

"There is so much womanish nonsense about
me! There is such reasonableness in your
reproach!"

Again he looked angrily at her, as he walked
up and down the room with a quicker step. He
was uneasy, amazed at the turn she had taken,
at the straying of her attention from the tremendous
fact he had revealed; but, above and
beyond all this, he was afraid of her.

He shrugged his shoulders impatiently, and
said, "Let it drop, let it drop; let me be as
unreasonable as you like, and blame me as much
as you please, but be truer to yourself, Harriet,
to your own helpful nature, than to yield to
such fancies now. This is no time for them.
We must look things in the face, and act."

"It is not I, but you, who refuse to look
things in the face, Stewart. This woman, whom
I do not know, who has not sought my
acquaintance, whose name you have not once
mentioned before me, but who makes you the
confidant of her flirtations and her appointments
—she is young and beautiful, is she not?"

"What the devil does it matter whether she
is or not?" said Routh, fiercely. "I think you
are bent on driving me mad. What has come
to you?  I don't know you in this new character.
I tell you, this woman——"

"Mrs. Bembridge," said Harriet, calmly.

"Mrs. Bembridge, then, has been the means
of my making a discovery which is of tremendous
importance, and thus she has unconsciously
saved me from an awful danger."

"By preventing George Dallas from finding
out this fact for a little longer?"

"Precisely so. Now I hope you have come
to yourself, Harriet, and will talk rationally
about this."