He was sitting there still, in the same position, when his wife appeared. She had entered the house stealthily, as she had left it, had taken off her things, and now came into the room ready for tea, as if she had only been upstairs to wash her hands. Scarcely had she reached the middle of the room, when he rose and laid his hand heavily on her shoulder. His face, as she turned to him in alarm, with its drawn aspect, its mingled pallor and hectic, was so changed that she could hardly recognize it for his. "Oscar, you terrify me!" she cried out. "What debts are these that you owe?" he asked, from between his parted lips. Was the dreaded moment come, then! A low moan escaped her. "Four thousand and some hundred pounds to Damereau, the milliner! How much more to others?" "Oh, Oscar, if you look and speak like that, you will kill me." "I ask how much more?" he repeated, passing by her words as the idle wind. "Tell me the truth, or I shall feel tempted to thrust you from my home, and advertise you." She wished the carpet would open and let her in; she hid her face. Oscar held her, and repeated the question: "How much?" "Six thousand pounds--in all--about that. Not more, I think." He released her then with a jerk. Selina began to cry like a school-girl. "Are you prepared to go out and work for your living, as I must do?" he panted. "I have nothing to keep you on, and shall not have for years. If they throw me into a debtor's prison tomorrow, I cannot help it." "Oh," shrieked silly Selina, "a prison! I'd go with you." "I might have expected something of this when I married into your branch of the family," returned Oscar, who, in good truth, was nearly beside himself. "A mania follows it. Your uncle gambled his means away, and then took his own life; your father hampered himself with his brother's debts, and remained poor; your brother followed in his uncle's wake; and now the mania is upon you!" "Oh, please, Oscar, please!" pleaded Selina, who had no more depth of feeling than a magpie, while Oscar had plenty of it. "I'll never, never go in debt again." "You shall never have the chance," he answered. And, there and then, Oscar Dalrymple, summoning his household, gave orders for their removal to the Grange. Selina cried her eyes out at having to quit the season and its attractions summarily. Thus, as a wreathing cloud suddenly appears in the sky, and as suddenly fades sway, had Mrs. Dalrymple, like a bright vision, appeared to the admiring eyes of the London world, and vanished from it. CHAPTER XVI. THE DIAMOND BRACELET. But, as you have heard, there is something yet to relate of that hot June day, or, rather, of its evening, when poor Selina Dalrymple had applied for help, and unsuccessfully, to her sister Alice.