"Sir Harry Marlowe, I told you--the father, you know, of Jekyl there," and she dropped her voice as she named him, "was in possession at the time when the deed affecting my beloved son's rights was lost." "Yes, madame." "And it was the Bishop there who attended him on his death-bed." "Ho!" exclaimed M. Varbarriere, looking more curiously for a moment at that dapper little gentleman in the silk apron. "They said he heard a great deal from poor wretched Sir Harry. I have never had an opportunity of asking him in private about it, but I mean to-morrow, please Heaven." "It may be, madame, in the highest degree important," said Monsieur Varbarriere, emphatically. "How can it be? My son is dead." "Your son is"----and M. Varbarriere, who was speaking sternly and with a pallid face, like a man deeply excited, suddenly checked himself, and said-- "Yes, very true, your son is dead. Yes, madame, he is dead." Old Lady Alice looked at him with a bewildered and frightened gaze. "In Heaven's name, sir, what do you mean?" "Mean--mean--why, what have I said?" exclaimed Monsieur Varbarriere, very tartly, and looking still more uncomfortable. "I did not say you had said anything, but you do mean something." "No, madame, I _forgot_ something; the tragedy to which you referred is not to be supposed to be always as present to the mind of another as it naturally is to your own. We forget in a moment of surprise many things of which at another time we need not to be reminded, and so it happened with me." Monsieur Varbarriere stood up and fiddled with his gold double eye-glasses, and seemed for a while disposed to add more on that theme, but, after a pause, said-- "And so it was to the _Bishop_ that Sir Harry Marlowe communicated his dying wish that the green chamber should be shut up?" "Yes, to him; and I have heard that more passed than is suspected, but of that I know nothing; only I mean to put the question to him directly, when next I can see him alone." Monsieur Varbarriere again looked with a curious scrutiny at the Bishop, and then he inquired-- "He is a prelate, no doubt, who enjoys a high reputation for integrity?" "This I know, that he would not for worlds utter an untruth," replied Lady Alice. "What a charming person is Lady Jane Lennox!" exclaimed Monsieur Varbarriere, suddenly diverging. "H'm! do you think so? Well, yes, she is very much admired." "It is not often you see a pair so unequal in years so affectionately attached," said Monsieur Varbarriere. "I have never seen her husband, and I can't, therefore, say how they get on together; but I'm glad to hear you say so. Jane has a temper, you know, which _every_ one might not get on with; that is," she added, fearing lest she had gone a little too far, "sometimes it is not quite pleasant." "No doubt she was much admired and much pursued," observed Varbarriere. "Yes, I said she was admired," answered Lady Alice, drily.