"Have you found Elizabeth's bracelet?" he asked in a tone which made the unhappy woman shiver from head to foot, and startled Elsie out of her playfulness. "Why, how did you think of that?" demanded Elsie; "did she tell you? Have you----" She stopped short, the words frozen on her lips by the look which Grantley Mellen still fixed upon his wife. Without changing that steady gaze, he extended his hand towards Elsie. "Give me the bracelet!" he said, in the cold, hard tone which, with him, was the sure forerunner of a tempest of passion. Elsie hesitated; she had grown nearly as pale as Elizabeth herself, but she looked like a frightened child. Elizabeth did not speak or move, but though her face was absolutely death-like, her eyes met her husband's with unflinching firmness. "Give me the bracelet!" repeated Mellen. "Here it is!" exclaimed Elsie, nervously, putting the bracelet in his hand. "What is the matter with you, Grant? I am sure there is nothing to make a fuss about. I found the bracelet among a lot of rubbish in one of Bessie's drawers--I suppose she forgot it was there." Grantley Mellen turned furiously towards her. "Are you learning to cheat and lie also?" he said. Elsie burst into a passionate flood of tears. "You are just as cruel and bad as you can be!" she moaned. "You ought to be ashamed to talk so to me! I haven't done anything; I thought you would be so pleased at my having found the bracelet, and here you behave in this way. You needn't blame me, Grant--I don't know what it all means! I am sure your dear mamma never thought you would speak to me like that! I wish I was dead and buried by her--then you'd be sorry----" "I am not angry with you, child," interrupted Mellen, softened at once by this childish appeal. "Go away and find Mrs. Harrington, Elsie. The falsehood and the treachery are not yours--thank God! at least my own blood has not turned traitor to me!" Elizabeth sank slowly in a chair; Elsie stole one frightened look towards her, then the woman in her confusion and dizziness saw her float out of the room, and she was alone with her husband. He held the bracelet up before her eyes, his hand shaking so that the jewels flashed balefully in the light. "Your plan was carried out too late; you should have had it found before!" he said, and his last effort at self-control was swept away. She must speak--must try to stem the tide, and keep back a little longer the exposure and ruin which for days back some mysterious warning had told her was surely approaching. "I don't know what you mean," she faltered. "I mean that the bracelet was found where you put it!" interrupted Mellen. "Why should I have hidden it? What reason--" "Stop!" he broke in. "Not another word--not a single falsehood more! You brought this bracelet back with you from the city--don't speak--I went to the pawnbroker's--it had just been taken away."