The prisoner breathed quickly and was silent. Then Captain Protheroe laughed quietly. "Ah, well! from time immemorial women have loved to delay their _coup-de-grâce_. You but carry out the traditions of your sex, madame." The prisoner turned to the captain a pair of wide blue eyes filled with horrified amazement. "Ah! I thought I could not be mistaken, Mistress Barbara," continued the captain, smiling. "Pray be seated, you must be worn out with fatigue." Barbara sank unresisting into the chair he pushed forward, and drooped her head in silence. "May I ask, madame, to what cause I owe the honour of this visit?" queried the captain politely. "Cicely said—we thought——" she began. Then recovering herself she continued firmly. "I had a suspicion that you might play me false, and might even now be about to set out to arrest Rupert." "Indeed! So you affected this—er—disguise to prevent our departure. Is it so, madame?" "I knew no other way," muttered Barbara. "I gave you my word." "Aye, but I liked not the manner in which you gave it. You—you angered me." "That is a pity," he answered quietly. Then seating himself on the edge of the table beside her, he eyed her coolly, and continued with a slight drawl. "Ah, well! the resemblance is certainly a strong one. Sir Rupert, methinks, is a trifle broader in the chest, and—there be one or two more details," he added, slowly surveying her figure. Barbara drooped her head still lower, and flushed angrily at the veiled insolence of his tone. "You will wonder how I noted the difference," continued the captain. "The fact is, as I was riding home alone, after my visit to the Manor House, I chanced to encounter the real Sir Rupert, and we had some conversation together." "You met Rupert!" cried Barbara, forgetting all in her astonishment. "Oh! where is he?" "He should by this well-nigh have reached the coast." "Alone?" "Alone, madame." "So you have kept your promise?" she cried in amazement. "Yes, Mistress Barbara, strange though it may seem to you, I have. It is a pity you did not trust me, you would have spared yourself the inconvenience of this—masquerade." The covert sneer in his tone stung her to a sudden anger. "And why should I trust you?" she cried haughtily. "You are my enemy." "I was your enemy, madame, but I had believed myself now to have some claim upon your trust and friendship." "I see not upon what you base such a belief," she answered still in anger. "Why else, madame, think you, did I set your brother free?" "I have but your word concerning that transaction," she answered scornfully. "You were alone when you encountered Rupert." "Certainly. What follows?" "My brother, Captain Protheroe, hath his sword." "A sword!" he laughed. "Why so have I, madame." "Verily, sir," she answered with a mocking laugh, "yonder it lies." Captain Protheroe, in astonishment, glanced from her face of triumph to the distant corner where lay his discarded rapier.