'You thus add insult to your profound presumption!' exclaimed Maude, quite exasperated now by the under-breeding of the style he adopted so suddenly; and, sweeping past him, she reached the entrance-hall, where the postal bag lay--a square and stately place, the stone floor of which was covered with soft matting; where in winter a great fire always blazed in the spacious stone fireplace, over which hung a single suit of armour, amid a trophy of weapons, old swords, mauls, and pikes. She put her hand in her bosom--her letter--the letter she wished to dispose of with her own hand--was no longer there! How--where had she dropped it? She turned, looked hastily round her, and saw Mr. Hawkey Sharpe, who had evidently picked it up, descending the staircase, and he handed it to her with a slight and grave bow. 'Oh--thank you,' said Maude, her mind now full of confusion and vexation. Quick as thought she dropped it into the postal bag after he handed it to her, but not before he had seen the address, and a dangerous gleam shot athwart his shifty eyes, and again the coarse, bold nature of the man came forth. 'So--so,' said he, through his clenched teeth. 'I find I have been mistaken in you, Miss Lindsay.' 'Mistaken, Mr. Sharpe?' 'Yes--mistaken all along.' 'I do not comprehend you.' 'Deceived by your soft, fair face and gentle eyes, I thought you unlike other girls--no coquette--no flirt--and now--now, I find----' 'What, sir?' demanded Maude impetuously. 'That you have correspondents.' 'Few, I suppose, are without them.' 'But who is he to whom you openly write--this Captain John Elliot?' 'Intolerable! How dare you ask me?' demanded Maude, her breast swelling, her cheeks, not flushed, but pale with anger, and her eyes flashing. 'A military friend of your brother's, I suppose we shall call him,' said he with an undisguised sneer. 'And a dear friend of mine,' said Maude defiantly, exasperated to find that the very discovery she wished to avoid had been made, and by this person particularly; 'but here comes my brother, and perhaps you had better make your inquiries of him,' she added, as a great sigh of mingled anger and relief escaped her on hearing Roland dismount under the _porte-cochère_; but, unable to face even him, distressed, humiliated, and altogether unnerved by her recent interview, all it involved, and all she had undergone, poor little Maude rushed away to seek alleviation amid a passion of tears, unseen and in the solitude of her own room. So this was Maude's secret! Hawkey Sharpe cared not just then to face Roland Lindsay; but with hands clenched he sent a glance of hate after the retreating figure of Maude, and withdrew in haste. They met in future, as we shall show, even amid Roland's guests; but with a consciousness--a most humiliating and irritating one to Maude, that there was almost a secret understanding--that odious love-making between them--and known, as she thought, to themselves alone. CHAPTER XV.