He referred to the card again, and though his face was ghastly from the pain he was suffering, he went on: “Do you remember a certain Count de Lussan who was present that evening?” She bowed her head. She would not have spoken at that moment to save her life, so great was the fear in her heart, while all the events of that fatal night rose up before her with a vividness which turned her sick and faint. “Do you know how it happened that a man of his character was present among respectable people?” “Yes; he came at my brother’s invitation, my lord,” she said, lifting her head, and speaking defiantly. “True; but at your invitation, and to serve a vile purpose of your own. It was through your maneuvering that he was introduced to Miss Douglas, and it was your taunts which spurred her on to disgrace herself and dance with him, in spite of her better judgment and my persuasions. I mistrusted something of it when it was too late, and you, by that last vile act, which I have only recently discovered, had separated us forever.” “And pray what terrible deed have you discovered at this late day?” her ladyship demanded, sarcastically, although she was colorless as a piece of marble, and her lips twitched nervously. “This! Do you remember ever seeing it before?” He took from his pocket a folded paper, yellow and creased with age, and advancing, gave it into her hands. For an instant she sat like one stunned, but she was livid even to her lips, and a trembling seized her which shook her like a reed. “Where did you get this?” she whispered, hoarsely, after a moment. “Accident threw it into my hands—how, it does not matter now; but it reveals all your vile plot to separate Meta and me, in which you succeeded only too well.” “But how do you know that I had anything to do with this note? I do not see that you have proved what you assert at all,” she said, bridling. “She gave that note to a servant to bring to me, you met her on the stairs, said you would deliver it, and then came and told me that Meta refused to see me then or at any other time; have I proved my point now?” he asked, sternly. She saw all was discovered, and made no reply, and he went on: “Mrs. Dredmond, as you know already, is my Meta’s grandniece. At her aunt’s death she found herself very unexpectedly reduced to the necessity of earning her own living. She found a place as governess in Mrs. Coolidge’s family, and came abroad with them. One day when she was out, she,” pointing to Isabel, who sat pale and cowering, “entered her room, where she discovered this casket of jewels. She took them to her mother, and they both came to the conclusion that a poor governess had no business with such valuables—that she must have stolen them! They accused her of it upon her return, and refused to give up the jewels until she could prove them to be hers.”