Could this be the safe old house in which childish days had passed, in which all around were always friendly and familiar faces? The window stood reflected upon the wall beside her in dim sunset light, and the shadows of the flowers sharp and still that stood there. "I have friends here who will turn you out, Sir!" "You have _no_ friends here," he replied, with the same fixed smile. She hesitated; she stepped down, but stopped in the hall. She remembered instantly that, as she turned, she had seen him take the key from the hall door. "My brother will protect me." "Is he here?" "He'll call you to account to-morrow, when he comes." "Will he say so?" "Always--brave, true Richard!" she sobbed, with a strange cry in her words. "He'll do as I bid him: he's a forger, in my power." To her wild stare he replied with a low, faint laugh. She clasped her fingers over her temples. "Oh! no, no, no, no, no, no!" she screamed, and suddenly she rushed into the great room at her right. Her brother--was it a phantom?--stood before her. With one long, shrill scream, she threw herself into his arms, and cried, "It's a lie, darling, it's a lie!" and she had fainted. He laid her in the great chair by the fire-place. With white lips, and with one fist shaking wildly in the air, he said, with a dreadful shiver in his voice,-- "You villain! you villain! you villain!" "Don't you be a fool," said Longcluse. "Ring for the maid. There must have been a crisis some time. I'm giving you a fair chance--trying to save you; they all faint--it's a trick with women." Longcluse looked into her lifeless face, with something of pity and horror mingling in the villany of his countenance. CHAPTER LXXVI. PHŒBE CHIFFINCH. Mr. Longcluse passed into the inner room, as he heard a step approaching from the hall. It was Louisa Diaper, in whose care, with the simple remedy of cold water, the young lady recovered. She was conveyed to her room, and Richard Arden followed, at Longcluse's command, to "keep things quiet." In an agony of remorse, he remained with his sister's hand in his, sitting by the bed on which she lay. Longcluse had spoken with the resolution that a few sharp and short words should accomplish the crisis, and show her plainly that her brother was, in the most literal and terrible sense, in his power, and thus, indirectly, she also. Perhaps, if she must know the fact, it was as well she should know it now.