"He is the lad we left at Ware--in the old woman's room," she answered, her voice sinking, and growing almost soft. "Lord! it seems so long ago, it might have happened in another life! You remember him. Matt? You saw him with me at The Rose one night? The first night I saw you?" He looked at me, long and strangely. "And what does it mean?" he said at last, scowling between wonder and suspicion. She shrugged her shoulders. "_Sais pas!_" she answered. "Ask him!" "You ruined me once!" I cried. "And he saved me! And now you would have me ruin him. You are devils, you are! Devils! But I defy you!" He did not answer, but continued to stare at me; as if he discerned or suspected that there was more in this than appeared on the surface. At length the woman laughed, and he turned to her, rage in his face. "I see nothing to laugh at," he said. "But I do!" she answered pertly. "You three all mixed up! It would make a cat laugh my lad." He cursed her. "Have done with that!" he said fiercely. "And say, what is to be done?" "Done?" she answered briskly, and in a tone of genuine surprise. "Why, that which was to be done. What difference does this make?" But he looked at her, pondering darkly, as if it did make a difference. I suppose that somewhere, deep down in his nature, there lurked a grain of superstition, which found in this singular coincidence, this sudden stringing together of persons long parted, an evil omen. Or it may be that he had still some scrap of conscience left, that, seared and deadened as it was, stirred and started at this strange upheaval of an old crime. At any rate, "I don't know," he growled at last. "I don't like it, and that is flat. There is some practice in this." "There is a fool in it," she answered naïvely. "And there are like to be two!" I thought to back him up, and I braced myself against the wall, to which I had retired. "I won't go!" I said doggedly. "I will call for help in the streets, first!" "You will do as you are told," she answered coolly. "And you," she continued to Smith in a voice of stinging scorn, "are you going to give it up now, when all is safe? Will you stand to my lord as this poor silly fellow stands to you? Have you waited for years for your revenge--to move aside now? Why, my G--d! the Duke is worth ten of you. He is a man, at any rate. He is----" "Peace, girl," he cried, with I know not what of menace in his tone. "Then, will you go?" "Yes, I will go!" he answered between his teeth. "But by heaven, you slut, if ill comes of it, I will wring your neck! I will, so help me heaven! You shall deceive no other man! If there is practice of yours in this, if this tool is here by your connivance----" "He is not!" she answered. "Be satisfied." Apparently he was satisfied, for he drew a deep breath, and stood silent. She turned to me. "Get ready," she said sharply. "No," I muttered, summoning all my resolution. "I shall not go. I--I have not----"