“He spoke truly,” said he, in a broken voice. “She never came! I walked the grounds for above an hour and a half, and then I came back towards the cottage. There was a light in her room, and I whistled to attract her notice, and threw some gravel against the glass, but she only closed the shutters, and did not mind me. I cannot tell you how my mind was racked between the actual terror of the situation and the vague dread of some unknown evil. What had produced this change in _her?_ Why had _she_ broken with me? Could it be that Towers had seen her in that long interval he was absent from the table, and, if so, to what intent? She always hated and dreaded him; but who could tell what influence such a man might acquire in a moment of terrible interest? A horrible sense of jealousy--not the less maddening that it was shadowy and uncertain--now filled my mind; and--would you believe it?--I thought worse of Towers for his conduct towards me than for the dreadful plot against Hawke. Chance led me, as I walked, to the bank of the little lake, where I stood for some time thinking. Suddenly a splash--too heavy for the spring of a fish--startled me, and immediately after I heard the sound of some one forcing his way through the close underwood beside me. Before I had well rallied from my astonishment, a voice I well knew to be that of Towers, cried out,-- “'Who 's there?--who are you?' “I called out, 'Hunt,--Paul Hunt!' “'And what the devil brings you here, may I ask?' said he, insolently, but in a tone that showed he had been drinking deeply. “It was no time to provoke discord; it was a moment that demanded all we could muster of concession and agreement, and so I simply told how mere accident had turned my steps in this direction. “'What if I said I don't believe you, Paul Hunt?' retorted he, savagely. 'What if I said that I see your whole game in this business, and know every turn and every trick you mean to play us?' “If you had not drunk so much of Godfrey's Burgundy,' said I, 'you 'd never have spoken this way to an old friend.' “'Friend be------!' cried he, savagely. 'I know no friends but the men who will share danger with you as well as drink out of the same bottle. Why did you leave us this evening?' “'I'll be frank with you, Tom,' said I. 'I had made a rendezvous with Louisa; but she never came.' “'Why should she?' muttered he, angrily. 'Why should she trust the man who is false to his pals?' “'That I have never been,' broke I in. 'Ask Hawke himself. Ask Godfrey, and he'll tell you whether I have ever dropped a word against you.' “'No, he would n't,' said he, doggedly. “'I tell you he would,' cried I. 'Let us go to him this minute.' “'I 'd rather not, if the choice were given me,' said he, with a horrid laugh. “'Do you mean,' cried I, in terror,--'do you mean that it is all over?'