"What I say. They are a curious mixture of weakness and duplicity." "Who are, dear?" said Jenny, with a warm colour taking the place of the pallor which her brother's words had produced. "Why will you go on talking in riddles?" "Women. Their soft, quiet ways force you to believe in them, and then comes some sudden enlightening to prove what I say." Jenny caught him by the shoulder as he sat in his chair, looking ghastly. "Tell me what you mean," she cried excitedly. "Only the falling to pieces of your castle in the air," he said, with a mocking laugh. "The marriage you arranged between the pauper physician and the rich heiress. I can easily be strictly honorable now." "Will you tell me what you mean, Pierce?" cried the girl, angrily. "What has happened? Is someone ill at the Manor House?" "No," he said, bitterly. "Then why were you sent for?" "To see an imaginary patient." "Pierce, if you do not wish me to go into a fit of hysterical passion," cried the girl, "tell me what you mean. Why--were--you--sent--for?" "Because," replied Leigh, imitating his sister's manner of speaking, "Mise--Katherine--Wilton--and--Mr Claud--were--supposed--to--be-- lying--speechless in their rooms, and--ha-ha-ha! their doors could not be forced." "Pierce, what is the matter with you?" cried Jenny, excitedly; "do you know what you are saying?" "Perfectly," he cried, his manner changing from its mocking tone to one of fierce passion. "When I reached the place, a way was found in, and the birds were flown." "Birds--flown," cried Jenny, looking more and more as if she doubted her brother's sanity; "what birds?" "The fair Katherine, and that admirable Crichton, Claud." "Flown?" stammered Jenny, who looked now half stunned. "Well, eloped," he cried, savagely, "to Gretna Green, or a registry office. Who says that Northwood is a dull place, without events?" "Kate Wilton eloped with her cousin Claud!" "Yes, my dear," said Pierce, striving hard to speak in a careless, indifferent tone, but failing dismally, for every word sounded as if torn from his breast, his quivering lips bespeaking the agony he felt. There was silence for a few moments, and then Jenny exclaimed: "Pierce, is this some cruel jest?" "Do I look as if I were jesting?" he cried wildly, and springing up he cast aside the mask beneath which he had striven to hide the agony which racked him. "Jesting! when I am half mad with myself for my folly. Driveling pitiful idiot that I was, ready to believe in the first pretty face I see, and then, as I have said, I find how full of duplicity and folly a woman is." "Mind what you are saying, Pierce," cried his sister, who seemed to be strangely moved; "don't say words which will make you bitterly repent. Tell me again; I feel giddy and sick. I must be going to be taken ill, for I can't have heard you aright, or there must be some mistake."