"Do go, Bob!" cried Belle. "Do, to please me." "Oh, to please you," said Darcy, sulkily, "I suppose I must. But where I'm to go for a night's lodging, in this God-forsaken place, is quite a problem." "Oh, there's a good inn just outside the Lodge gates. I know the proprietor of it," said Miss Fitzgerald. "Perhaps you'll give me a line to him," he suggested, "as you're turning me out, and I've no luggage to insure my respectability." "Certainly," she replied, "if you've a pencil, and will excuse the back of an old envelope." The Colonel nodded, and she took an undirected envelope, which seemed to be carrying more than it could conveniently hold, from the pocket of her dress, and hastily scribbled a line on it with the pencil he gave her, handing them both to him nervously. "Perhaps," suggested the Secretary coldly, who had watched this transaction with growing irritation, "it would be as well to remove the contents of your letter, Miss Fitzgerald. You should be careful to whom you entrust your correspondence." She faced him, and looked at him steadily, with those great blue eyes of hers, while she said, with measured force and deliberation: "I should be quite willing to trust the contents of any of my letters to Colonel Darcy's care." The Colonel had, meantime, been nervously twisting the envelope round his fingers, and Stanley caught sight of a well-known monogram composed of the initials A. R. It was the letter he had taken from Kingsland, and restored to Mr. Riddle. How came it in Belle's hands--the seal still unbroken, and why was it given to Darcy? His suspicions, so long lulled by careful artifice, were at once aroused, and he threw the Colonel a glance, the meaning of which was not lost on the woman. Suddenly, her whole manner changing, she became nervous and excitable, once more saying to Darcy: "Now, go, Bob; go at once, for all our sakes." He growled a surly reply, and before the Secretary was aware of his intentions, had left the room. Stanley stood for a moment, dazed; uncertain whether to follow or remain, his breast full of conflicting emotions; bewilderment at the vast field of possibilities opened by the Colonel's receipt of the letter; rage at his cowardly imputations, and dismay at the consequences of the strong circumstantial evidence which Madame Darcy had unwittingly manufactured against him; and at the effect which the Colonel's charges might produce on Miss Fitzgerald. He was prepared for hysterics, recriminations, stern questions, scorn, anger, and endless tears; but totally unprepared for the ringing burst of laughter which greeted him as soon as the Colonel had left the room; cold, cynical laughter, from the girl he had just asked to be his wife, who threw herself on the couch, her eyes flashing and her whole face twitching with anger or merriment, he was not certain which. "Oh dear--oh dear!" she cried, when she could at last control her voice, "this is too funny! too dreadfully funny!"