The rest of the day passed without anything special occurring. Rowton and his wife took a walk together. In the evening they sat in the library and Rowton told her stories with regard to several of the books. He never alluded to the sorrow which he knew was waiting for her the next day. “Time enough,” he said to himself; “I need not leave here till three o’clock in the afternoon—there is a train at three-thirty which will take me to King’s Cross in sufficient time. Let me see, I need not tell her to-night, nor will I tell her to-morrow, until after lunch; we’ll have what happiness we can. After all it may be all right, and I may come back safe and sound, or——” he paused in his own thoughts. A picture rose up before his eyes. He saw himself a corpse, shot through the heart—such an event was more than probable. He knew that he was going into grave danger—that, in very truth, he was about to carry his life in his hand. “No matter, but for her,” he said to himself. “I am sick of the whole thing, and to die fighting would be the heart of my desire; but I cannot leave her to face what may any moment be before her. No, I must court caution this time—I must avoid risks. Her happiness must come first with me—_her_ happiness! Ah! Nance, what are you looking at me so earnestly for?” “I see you are not reading,” said Nancy, flinging down her own book. “No more I am,” he replied. “Come and sit on my knee, little woman. By the way, I have a piece of work for us both to-morrow.” “What is that?” she asked. “I want us to overhaul the family plate.” “Have we much plate?” asked Nance. “Have we much plate?” he answered, mimicking her tone; “something like three or four thousand pounds’ worth I should say.” “Adrian!” “Well, wait until I show it to you to-morrow. My grandfather was celebrated for collecting plate. A good deal of it was mortgaged when my father got into difficulties, but we managed to rescue almost the whole of it. I want to have it all out to-morrow, for I have ordered a special safe of a peculiar make to be sent down from town. Of course there are several men servants in the house; but it is not well to have such a lot of plate unless perfectly secured. I have ordered a safe, however, which would baffle the efforts of the most accomplished burglar in the world. Now let us talk no more about it. If you are not tired, I am. Remember, I was up the whole of last night—suppose we go to bed.” “I am so sleepy that I can scarcely keep my eyes open,” said Nancy. “All right, come upstairs.” The night was over, and the next day, immediately after breakfast, Rowton and Nancy, accompanied by Mrs. Ferguson, the housekeeper, went to the butler’s pantry, where a show of magnificent plate was arranged for them to view. “This is not all by any means,” said Rowton, running his eyes over the articles as he spoke. “Where are the gold-plated things? I don’t see them.” “In this chest, sir,” said Mrs. Ferguson.