The tone of the answer he had just given, and
the attitude he assumed at the table, convinced
Mrs. Lecount that Spanish wine and Scotch
mutton had done their duty, and had rallied his
sinking courage.

"I will put the question to you for form's sake,
sir, if you wish it," she proceeded. " But I am
already certain, without any question at all, that
you have made your will?"

He nodded his head, without looking at her.

"You have made it in your wife's favour?"

He nodded again.

"You have left her everything you possess?"

"No."

Mrs. Lecount looked surprised.

' ' Did you exercise a reserve towards her, Mr.
Noel, of your own accord?" she inquired, " or is
it possible that your wife put her own limits to
her interest in your will?"

He was uneasily silent—- he was plainly ashamed
to answer the question. Mrs. Lecount repeated
it in a less direct form.

"How much have you left your widow, Mr.
Noel, in the event of your death?"

"Eighty thousand pounds."

That reply answered the question. Eighty
thousand pounds was exactly the fortune which
Michael Vanstone had taken from his brother's
orphan children at his brother's death-— exactly
the fortune of which Michael Vanstone's son had
kept possession, in his turn, as pitilessly as his
father before him. Noel Yanstone's silence was
eloquent of the confession which he was ashamed
to make. His doting weakness had, beyond all
doubt, placed his whole property at the feet of
his wife. And this girl, whose vindictive daring
had defied all restraints—- this girl, who had not
shrunk from her desperate determination even at
the church door—- had, in the very hour of her
triumph, taken part only from the man who would
willingly have given all!—- had rigorously exacted
her father's fortune from him to the last farthing;
and had then turned her back on the hand that
was tempting her with tens of thousands more!
For the moment, Mrs. Lecount was fairly
silenced by her own surprise; Magdalen had
forced the astonishment from her which is akin
to admiration, the astonishment which her enmity
would fain have refused. She hated Magdalen
with a tenfold hatred from that time.

"I have no doubt, sir," she resumed, after a
momentary silence, " that Mrs. Noel gave you
excellent reasons why the provision for her at
your death should be no more, and no less, than
eighty thousand pounds. And, on the other hand,
I am equally sure that you, in your innocence of
all suspicion, found those reasons conclusive at
the time. That time has now gone by.  Your
eyes are opened, sir—- and you will not fail to
remark (as I remark) that the Combe-Raven
property happens to reach the same sum exactly,
as the legacy which your wife's own instructions
directed you to leave her.  If you are still in any
doubt of the motive for which she married you,
look in your own will—- and there the motive is!"

He raised his head from his hands, and became
closely attentive to what she was saying to him,
for the first time since they had faced each other
at the table.  The Combe-Raven property had
never been classed by itself in his estimation.
It had come to him merged in his father's other
possessions, at his father's death.  The discovery
which had now opened before him, was one to
which his ordinary habits of thought, as well as
his innocence of suspicion, had hitherto closed
his eyes.  He said nothing—- but he looked less
sullenly at Mrs. Lecount.  His manner was more
ingratiating; the high tide of his courage was
already on the ebb.

  "Your position, sir, must be plain by this
time to you as it is to me," said Mrs.
Lecount.  "There is only one obstacle now left,
between this woman and the attainment of her
end. That obstacle is your life. After the
discovery we have made up-stairs, I leave
you to consider for yourself what your life is
worth."

At those terrible words, the ebbing resolution
in him ran out to the last drop. " Don't frighten
me!" he pleaded; " I have been frightened enough
already." He rose, and dragged his chair after
him round the table to Mrs. Lecount' s side. He
sat down, and caressingly kissed her hand. " You
good creature!" he said, in a sinking voice. " You
excellent Lecount! Tell me what to do. I'm
full of resolution—- I'll do anything to save my
life!"

"Have you got writing materials in the room,
sir?" asked Mrs. Lecount. " Will you put them
on the table, if you please?"

While the writing materials were in process of
collection, Mrs. Lecount made a new demand on
the resources of her travelling-bag. She took
two papers from it, each endorsed in the same
neat commercial handwriting. One was described
as "Draft for proposed Will;" and the other, as
"Draft for proposed Letter." When she placed
them before her on the table, her hand shook a
little; and she applied the smelling-salts, which
she had brought with her in Noel Vanstone's
interests, to her own nostrils.

"I had hoped, when I came here, Mr. Noel,"
she proceeded, "to have given you more time for
consideration, than it seems safe to give you now.
When you first told me of your wife's absence in
London, I thought it probable that the object of
her journey was to see her sister and Miss Garth.
Since the horrible discovery we have made
upstairs, I am inclined to alter that opinion. Your
wife's determination not to tell you who the
friends are whom she has gone to see, fills me
with alarm. She may have accomplices in
London -—accomplices, for anything we know to
the contrary, in this house. All three of your
servants, sir, have taken the opportunity in turn
of coming into the room, and looking at me. I
don't like their looks! Neither you nor I know
what may happen from day to day- or even from
hour to hour. If you take my advice, you will
get the start at once of all possible accidents;