Blue-ribbons to watch the effect of the
exposure upon her. Did she think him a harlequin
jumping through the hoops, or the
Courier of Saint Petersburg on two horses at
a time?

Mr. Smith's memory grew particularly
lively. "I once knew a whole troop of
Acrobats," he said, "arrested for robbery
and attempted murder. They climbed up on
each other's shoulders till they reached the
third floor, and the apex of the pyramid
jumped into a bedroom window. Four of
them, which formed the base, were transported
for life; and the middle of the building had
four years of penal servitude."

Before Mr. Dalwood had time to do
more than say he believed there was some
mistake, a great noise was heard outside
the window: a tramping of many feet, and
a hum of voices; above which, however,
were heard the awful words, "If you offer
any resistance, I will shoot you through the
head."

"Their friends!" exclaimed Miss Lavinia,
"O, we shall all be murdered!"

"Accomplices," said Mr. Smith: "they will
every one of them be hanged."

The cousins fluttered like frightened pigeons
into a corner, and the two heroes of the
adventure were undecided whether to make
a rush at Old Smith and kill him on the spot,
pitching Miss Lavinia out of the window,
and effecting their escape; or to await the
result of the new incident, and justify
themselves in the eyes of the good old gentleman
and the charming girls.

"I will not give up my pursuit of Blue-
ribbons for all the aunts and doctors in the
world," whispered Vincent to his uncle.
"She knows all about Barcombe Leas."

The brother and sister in the meantime
had been holding a very animated though
inaudible conversation. It was evident that
the lady was for proceeding to violent
measures at once, and that good Mr. Dalwood
resisted her suggestion. At last he left the
room accompanied by his adviser, expressly
charging Mr. Smith with the protection of
the young ladies, and declining to take so
strong a step as to send them out of the
house, or give them into legal custody. He
then went to his business room to take
magisterial cognisance of the disturbance on the
lawn. A few minutes put Miss Lavinia into
a state of triumphant exultation, for she
discovered that all her suspicions were well-
founded, and the precautions she had taken
against a burglarious entrance into the house
crowned with success. From the peculiar
conversation of Mr. Blanders she had begun at a
very early period of their acquaintance to have
vague suspicions that all was not right, and
that he would scarcely be engaged in a
Government office, of the grandeur of which
she had a mysterious idea, as if it contained
whole families of prime ministers and
ambassadors. Her temper had been put on an
additional edge by certain unaccountable
proceedings on the part of Blue-ribbons for some
weeks past. She had gone every day to the
post-office, and brought back missives which
she furtively (though not unperceived by the
lynx eyes of that embodied propriety) slipped
into Mary's hand. The reports of the equipage
of the travellers brought her from the
Waggoner excited her suspicions more and
more, and her anger was doubly inflamed by
the empty condition in which she had found
the desks, drawers, and other repositories of
the young ladies, in which she had instituted
a diligent search, in the hope of discovering
any letters which might lead to a clearing up
of the mystery. She had floated all the
evening in a state of disagreeable doubt
whether the intruders on her brother's
hospitality were her nieces' secret lovers in the
disguise of travelling mountebanks, or in
league with a party of thieves to break in
and rob the house. To guard against the
latter chance, she had stationed gardeners,
hedgers, and other labourers all over the
domain, and great was now her delight when
she saw two men wrapped in cloaks, hustled
into her brother's justice room, and now she
hurried back to the drawing-room to relate
her successful proceedings.

Some rather odd and unexpected things
had happened in that apartment during her
absence. The moment she had gone, Mr.
Blanders had performed a sommerset over
the sofa, and advanced on his hands towards
the astonished Mr. Smith, and after clapping
his heels in a defiant manner in that gentleman's
face, had flung himself into a vertical
position, and announced the appalling fact
that it was his intention to put him to a
painful and ignominious death if he either
stirred from his chair, or gave utterance to
the slightest sound. Mr. Smith silently
revolved in his mind all the incidents in the
police reports bearing on this question, and
came to the conclusion that it would be wiser
to be quiet. Whereupon, Mr. Blanders
performed a coachwheel across the floor, and in
three evolutions found himself in his old
place beside Miss Mary Dalwood. There were
reasons best known to that young lady
which persuaded her that her aunt's
suspicions were totally unfounded, and the same
confidence extended to her cousin, with
regard to the honour and respectability of
Mr. Blanders's nephew. In fact, there was a
good deal of laughter, and a great deal of
whispering, and Mr. Smith was trying in vain
to catch a syllable or imagine the cause of the
hilarity, observing every now and then
the immense fist of the young athlete
extended to him in a menacing manner if he
looked for a moment towards the assembled
group.

"And how do you happen to know so
much about Mr. Willis and his proceedings
in London, I must ask you again," said
Vincent, after a quantity of other talk.