“I don’t know him. I don’t want to know him. Do you think he means to send for you. Perhaps he _has_ sent for you. I won’t allow it! You shan’t go!” “Don’t excite yourself, dear! I have refused to go; I mean to stay here with you.” The fevered brain held to its last idea. “_Has_ he sent for you?” she said again, louder than before. Emily replied once more, in terms carefully chosen with the one purpose of pacifying her. The attempt proved to be useless, and worse--it seemed to make her suspicious. “I won’t be deceived!” she said; “I mean to know all about it. He did send for you. Whom did he send?” “His housekeeper.” “What name?” The tone in which she put the question told of excitement that was rising to its climax. “Don’t you know that I’m curious about names?” she burst out. “Why do you provoke me? Who is it?” “Nobody you know, or need care about, dear aunt. Mrs. Rook.” Instantly on the utterance of that name, there followed an unexpected result. Silence ensued. Emily waited--hesitated--advanced, to part the curtains, and look in at her aunt. She was stopped by a dreadful sound of laughter--the cheerless laughter that is heard among the mad. It suddenly ended in a dreary sigh. Afraid to look in, she spoke, hardly knowing what she said. “Is there anything you wish for? Shall I call--?” Miss Letitia’s voice interrupted her. Dull, low, rapidly muttering, it was unlike, shockingly unlike, the familiar voice of her aunt. It said strange words. “Mrs. Rook? What does Mrs. Rook matter? Or her husband either? Bony, Bony, you’re frightened about nothing. Where’s the danger of those two people turning up? Do you know how many miles away the village is? Oh, you fool--a hundred miles and more. Never mind the coroner, the coroner must keep in his own district--and the jury too. A risky deception? I call it a pious fraud. And I have a tender conscience, and a cultivated mind. The newspaper? How is _our_ newspaper to find its way to her, I should like to know? You poor old Bony! Upon my word you do me good--you make me laugh.” The cheerless laughter broke out again--and died away again drearily in a sigh. Accustomed to decide rapidly in the ordinary emergencies of her life, Emily felt herself painfully embarrassed by the position in which she was now placed. After what she had already heard, could she reconcile it to her sense of duty to her aunt to remain any longer in the room?