The explanation over, Lizzy Dene left me. I crossed the hall to enter the oak-parlour just in time to see Hickens open the front door to a visitor, and to hear a colloquy. My heart seemed to shrink within me at the voice, for it was Mr. Edwin Barley's. What could have brought _him_ to the house, boldly inquiring for its inmates? It appeared that Mrs. Penn, on her stealthy visit to his house that morning, had not seen him. Upon inquiring for Mr. Barley she was told he had gone out betimes, shooting. The information took her aback. Go out shooting, when his enemy, for whom he had been searching night and day these ten years, was found to be close at hand, waiting to be apprehended! And she forthwith accused the footman of not delivering to his master the note left at the house the previous night, upon which she had the pleasure of hearing that the note was duly delivered to Mr. Edwin Barley, and turned out to be a circular of the fashions. All she could do then was to write a few lines, giving him the information about George Heneage, with a charge that it should be put into Mr. Barley's hands the instant he set foot in the house. But Mr. Barley did not return to it quickly. The birds were shy that day. Later, when he was at length going home, his gun in one hand and a brace of pheasants in the other, he encountered a procession. Turning out at the lodge-gates came Mrs. Penn, one policeman walking by her side, another behind; and, following on, Mrs. Penn's luggage in a truck propelled by a man in the Chandos livery. Mr. Edwin Barley naturally stopped; although he had not been on good terms with Mrs. Penn for some years; and inquired the meaning of what he saw. "You are the only relative I have left in the world, Mr. Edwin Barley; will you, as such, suffer this indignity to be put upon me?" were the first words she spoke. And he, thus called upon, turned in his haughty, menacing manner on the officers. She _was_ his relative, as she said, and he possessed some right feeling. "What is the meaning of this? Unhand the lady! Why are you guarding her in that offensive manner?" "We have orders, sir, to see the lady safely away from Chandos." "Who gave you the orders?" "Mr. Chandos." Mr. Edwin Barley said something about making Mr. Chandos retract his orders before the day was over; but the men were not to be intimidated. "The lady has not been behaving on the square, sir, and we thought at first she would be given into custody. But Mr. Chandos considered it over; and said, as she had been able to effect no great harm, he'd let her go." Mr. Edwin Barley looked to Mrs. Penn for an explanation. Instead of giving it, she whispered in his ear the information about George Heneage. For the first time for years, Mr. Edwin Barley's face twitched with powerful emotion. "WHAT do you say?" he asked in his surprise and bewilderment.