"Doubt you? So greatly that I am deliberating whether I shall not call in the police again and give you in charge." It was said in jest I knew, but at that moment it told upon me, and the sobs were palpably near the surface. Hickens was heard approaching with the basin of water. "Oh, Anne, Anne! you are a very simple child." "Will you see to your hand, sir?" "Ay, it wants seeing to." It was the palm that was cut; badly, I thought. Mr. Chandos seemed to understand what to do, and dressed it himself with the butler's help, I watching the process. When we were alone again, I took the little parcel from my pocket, and gave it to Mr. Chandos. "Will you please to open that, sir?" "Two sovereigns," he cried, as he did so. "What of them?" I told him all about it, where I found them. He held them close to the light, and smiled. "They are the sovereigns I lost out of my desk, Anne." "Are you sure?" "Sure? Here are the marks. See." Standing close, I looked where he pointed. The marks were plain. I went to my seat and sat down. "And you found them in your trunk! Anne, who is your enemy in the house?" "I did not know I had one, sir. So far as I am aware I have not given offence to any within it. I must quit it now." "Oh, indeed! What else would you like to do?" I could no longer keep my tears back; it was of no use trying, and they ran over my checks. "It seems to me, Mr. Chandos, that I am no longer safe in it." "You are perfectly safe, Anne, for you possess in it a powerful protector. One who will not suffer harm to reach you; who will be a shield to you in every assault; who will guard annoyance from you so far as shall be practicable." I knew that he alluded to himself, and thanked him in my heart. But—so far as was practicable! There it lay. If I really had a hidden enemy, who might shield me? Mr. Edwin Barley it could not be; and I fell back to the suspecting of Lizzy Dene. Mr. Chandos began telling off the inmates on his fingers. "There's my mother, Mrs. Chandos, myself, Hill, Hickens; for all these I can answer. Then come the servants. For some of them I can equally answer, Lizzy Dene being one; but I regard them all as honest and trustworthy." "Therefore the uncertain ones are only Mrs. Penn and myself." "And Mrs. Penn is certainly exempted," he rejoined. "For she has been meddled with in an equal degree with any of us." "That leaves only me!" "Just so; only you. But Anne," bending those earnest eyes upon me, "I would answer for you with my _life_." "If it is not Lizzy Dene that is my enemy, who else can it be?" I exclaimed, foolishly speaking what was in my thoughts. "Why should you think it to be Lizzy Dene more than any one else?" he hastily cried, in a resenting sort of tone. "She can have no cause of enmity against you." There flashed across me that interview with Mr. Edwin Barley. If it was Lizzy Dene who had held it, who was in league with him, no need to search for a motive.