"I know but little of St. Udo Brand," pondered Margaret; "But I will traverse with this man every inch of the ground of which I am mistress, and if he is false, surely he must fall in something. Let me set _the first trap_." "As we pass this lodge a certain association comes into my mind," she said, always with that cold scorn breaking through her enforced courtesy; "and now that I am honored by having you to refer to, I shall bring my difficulty for your solution. "How was my dear Miss Brand choked by a parasite?" The colonel stared blankly. An uneasy frown stole up to his forehead; once, twice, he opened his lips to speak, but checked himself and waited. The silence became too threatening on the part of Margaret; she was forced to lead the next step, "You seem to be utterly confounded, sir, I would not have asked you the question if I had not had your own word that such was the case." "May I ask, my dear Miss Walsingham, may I ask to what you refer?" "You feign forgetfulness. Fie, Colonel Brand, is it possible that the few words which have ever passed between us could have slipped your memory? Perhaps you will profess yourself unable to explain to me the term 'fortune-hunter,' as applied in connection with me, also." The blank change deepened on the soldier's sallow countenance, then a certain film covered the wandering eyes, like those of an eagle before the too bright sun. "Miss Walsingham, whoever informed you of my using any such invidious term in connection with you, traduced me." "You never used the word then?" "On my honor as a gentleman, no." "Ha," cried Margaret, with a flash of triumph, "then you utterly deny having ever written to me?" A scowl, withering as fire, crossed the colonel's face, and a furtive glare at his daring opponent, made her shudder though she did not see it. "You refer to the unlucky note I was insane enough to write to you, the night upon which I left Castle Brand?" he inquired, slowly coming out of his fog. "I had forgotten its contents." "Most extraordinary that you should forget its contents, Colonel Brand. Then you can explain nothing, and I must expect no apology for the bitterest insult which you could have passed upon one in my position." "Dear Miss Walsingham, I--I meant no insult. Please do not take it as such." She laughed a taunting, irritating laugh. If he had been a worm wriggling along by her side she could not have treated him with more contempt. "So brave to bark! so timid to bite!" she jibed. "Oh Colonel Brand, that is so unlike the daring spirit of the Brands, which scorned to cringe, that I am almost tempted to _believe you some impish changeling_." Some white indentations came upon the livid face of Colonel Brand; for an instant it seemed as if in his murderous wrath he would smite the girl to the earth, but he quailed as soon as her glittering eyes were fixed upon him, and spoke, though with a thick and husky tone.