"I will keep it and ask Mr. Ingledew or Mr. Evandale. You were pouring from it into the medicine that Mr. Ingledew gave me--for what purpose you know, not I." A gasp issued from Flossy's pale lips. Her danger was clear to her now. "Give it back to me!" she said. "I will have it--I tell you I will!" Enid's hand was frail and slight; not for one moment could she have resisted Mrs. Vane's superior strength--for Flossy could be strong when occasion called for strength--and she did not try. With a quick sweep of her arm she hurled the little bottle into the grate! It broke into fragments as it fell, the crash striking painfully on the ear in the stillness of the night. The two women looked into each other's faces; and then Flossy quailed and fell back a step or two. "What good or harm will that do?" she asked slowly. "Why did you break it?" "Better for it to be broken than used for others' harm." "How do you know that it was meant to do harm?" "I don't know it; I feel it--I am sure of it. If you lie and cheat and rob, where will you stop short? Is it likely that I of all people can trust you?" Florence caught at the bed as if for support. She was trembling violently; but her face had all its old malignancy as she said-- "You are going to slander me to your uncle, I suppose? Every one knows that you would gain if I--I and little Dick were out of the way!" Enid looked at her steadily. "You are very clever, Florence," she said, "and it is exceedingly clever of you to mention little Dick to me. You know that I love him, although I do not love you. I shall do no harm to him that I can help. But this--this burden is more than I can bear alone! I shall go to another for help." "You have promised to speak to nobody but Hubert on the subject," said Flossy, turning upon her with a look of tigress-like fury. "To nobody but my husband or my promised husband." "And that is Hubert." "No; it is not Hubert." "Not Hubert? Then who--who?" "That is nothing to you. You will hear in good time. You have no right to question me; you lost your authority over me long ago." "Not Hubert?" Flossy repeated once more, as if bewildered by the news. Then she burst into a low wild laugh. "You are right," she said. "He has replaced you already; he is desperately in love with Cynthia Westwood, the daughter of the man who murdered your father, and he has given you up. He never cared for you; he wanted your money only. Did that never occur to your innocent mind? As soon as he is better, he will make Cynthia his wife." "He is free to do so if he pleases," said the girl, with a touch of scorn in her voice. "I am thankful to escape from you both. You will not expect me to live under the same roof with you again."