gone away, if she had known Miss Halcombe
was still left here. She has been deceived in her
own interests—and I don't care who knows it.
Go, if you like—there are plenty of
housekeepers as good as you, to be had for the asking.
Go, when you please—but take care how you
spread scandals about me and my affairs, when
you're out of my service. Tell the truth, and
nothing but the truth, or it will be the worse for
you! See Miss Halcombe for yourself; see if
she hasn't been as well taken care of in one part
of the house as in the other. Remember the
doctor's own orders that Lady Glyde was to have
a change of air at the earliest possible
opportunity. Bear all that well in mind—and then
say anything against me and my proceedings if
you dare!”

He poured out these words fiercely, all in a
breath, walking backwards and forwards, and
striking about him in the air with his whip.

Nothing that he said or did shook my opinion
of the disgraceful series of falsehoods that he had
told, in my presence, the day before, or of the
cruel deception by which he had separated Lady
Glyde from her sister, and had sent her
uselessly to London, when she was half distracted
with anxiety on Miss Halcombe's account. I
naturally kept these thoughts to myself, and said
nothing more to irritate him; but I was not the
less resolved to persist in my purpose. A soft
answer turneth away wrath; and I suppressed
my own feelings, accordingly, when it was my
turn to reply.

“While I am in your service, Sir Percival,”
I said, “I hope I know my duty well enough not
to inquire into your motives. When I am out
of your service, I hope I know my own place
well enough not to speak of matters which don't
concern me——”

“When do you want to go?” he asked,
interrupting me without ceremony. “Don't suppose
I am anxious to keep you—don't suppose I care
about your leaving the house. I am perfectly
fair and open in this matter, from first to last.
When do you want to go?”

“I should wish to leave at your earliest
convenience, Sir Percival.”

“My convenience has nothing to do with it.
I shall be out of the house, for good and all, to-
morrow morning; and I can settle your accounts
to-night. If you want to study anybody's
convenience, it had better be Miss Halcombe's.
Mrs. Rubelle's time is up to-day; and she has
reasons for wishing to be in London to-night.
If you go at once, Miss Halcombe won't have a
soul left here to look after her.”

I hope it is unnecessary for me to say that I
was quite incapable of deserting Miss Halcombe
in such an emergency as had now befallen Lady
Glyde and herself. After first distinctly
ascertaining from Sir Percival that Mrs. Rubelle was
certain to leave at once if I took her place, and
after also obtaining permission to arrange for
Mr. Dawson's resuming his attendance on his
patient, I willingly consented to remain at
Blackwater Park, until Miss Halcombe no longer
required my services. It was settled that I should
give Sir Percival's solicitor a week's notice
before I left; and that he was to undertake the
necessary arrangements for appointing my
successor. The matter was discussed in very few
words. At its conclusion, Sir Percival abruptly
turned on his heel, and left me free to join Mrs.
Rubelle. That singular foreign person had been
waiting composedly on the door-step, all this
time, waiting till I could follow her to Miss
Halcombe's room.

I had hardly walked half way towards the
house, when Sir Percival, who had withdrawn
in the opposite direction, suddenly stopped, and
called me back.

“Why are you leaving my service?” he asked.

The question was so extraordinary, after what
had just passed between us, that I hardly knew
what to say in answer to it.

“Mind! I don't know why you are going,”
he went on. “You must give a reason for
leaving me, I suppose, when you get another
situation. What reason? The breaking-up of
the family? Is that it?”

“There can be no positive objection, Sir
Percival, to that reason——”

“Very well! That's all I want to know.
If people apply for your character, that's your
reason, stated by yourself. You go in
consequence of the breaking-up of the family.”

He turned away again, before I could say
another word, and walked out rapidly into the
grounds. His manner was as strange as his
language. I acknowledge he alarmed me.

Even the patience of Mrs. Rubelle was
getting exhausted, when I joined her at the house
door.

“At last!” she said, with a shrug of her lean
foreign shoulders. She led the way into the
inhabited side of the house, ascended the stairs,
and opened with her key the door at the end of
the passage, which communicated with the old
Elizabethan rooms—a door never previously
used, in my time, at Blackwater Park. The
rooms themselves I knew well, having entered
them myself, on various occasions, from the other
side of the house. Mrs. Rubelle stopped at the
third door along the old gallery, handed me the
key of it, with the key of the door of communication,
and told me I should find Miss Halcombe
in that room. Before I went in, I thought it
desirable to make her understand that her
attendance had ceased. Accordingly, I told her
in plain words that the charge of the sick lady
henceforth devolved entirely on myself.

“I am glad to hear it, ma'am,” said Mrs.
Rubelle. “I want to go very much.”

“Do you leave to-day?” I asked, to make
sure of her.

“Now, that you have taken the charge,
ma'am, I leave in half an hour's time. Sir
Percival has kindly placed at my disposition the
gardener, and the chaise, whenever I want them.
I shall want them in half an hour's time, to go
to the station. I am packed up, in anticipation,
already. I wish you good day, ma'am.”

She dropped a brisk curtsey, and walked back
along the gallery, humming a little tune, and