"Good evening, Mr. Glenarm!"

Marian Devereux's voice broke the silence, and Marian

Devereux's face, with the full light of the lantern

upon it, was bent gravely upon me. Her voice, as I

heard it there,-her face, as I saw it there,-are the

things that I shall remember last when my hour comes

to go hence from this world. The slim fingers, as they

clasped the wire screen of the lantern, held my gaze for

a second. The red tam-o'-shanter that I had associated

with her youth and beauty was tilted rakishly on one

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side of her pretty head. To find her here, seeking, like

a thief in the night, for some means of helping Arthur

Pickering, was the bitterest drop in the cup. I felt as

though I had been struck with a bludgeon.

"I beg your pardon!" she said, and laughed. "There

doesn't seem to be anything to say, does there? Well,

we do certainly meet under the most unusual, not to say

unconventional, circumstances, Squire Glenarm. Please

go away or turn your back. I want to get out of this

donjon keep."

She took my hand coolly enough and stepped down

into the passage. Then I broke upon her stormily.

"You don't seem to understand the gravity of what

you are doing! Don't you know that you are risking

your life in crawling through this house at midnight?

-that even to serve Arthur Pickering, a life is a pretty

big thing to throw away? Your infatuation for that

blackguard seems to carry you far, Miss Devereux."

She swung the lantern at arm's length back and forth

so that its rays at every forward motion struck my face

like a blow.

"It isn't exactly pleasant in this cavern. Unless you

wish to turn me over to the lord high executioner, I will

bid you good night."

"But the infamy of this-of coming in here to spy

upon me-to help my enemy-the man who is seeking

plunder-doesn't seem to trouble you."

"No, not a particle!" she replied quietly, and then,

with an impudent fling, "Oh, no!" She held up the lantern

to look at the wick. "I'm really disappointed to

find that you were a little ahead of me, Squire Glenarm.

I didn't give you credit for so much-perseverance.

But if you have the notes-"

"The notes! He told you there were notes, did he?

The coward sent you here to find them, after his other

tools failed him?"

She laughed that low laugh of hers that was like the

bubble of a spring.

[Illustration: "I beg your pardon!" she said, and laughed.] "Of course no one would dare deny what the great

Squire Glenarm says," she said witheringly.

"You can't know what your perfidy means to me," I

said. "That night, at the Armstrongs', I thrilled at

the sight of you. As you came down the stairway I

thought of you as my good angel, and I belonged to you,

-all my life, the better future that I wished to make

for your sake."




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