"I cannot answer you that. Mr. Edermont only said that his nightmare was at an end. I presume from such a speech that he felt there was no more danger. Unfortunately, he was murdered shortly afterwards, so that his hopes were vain. But you apparently know all about this person whom my guardian feared. What is his name?" "I can't tell you, Dora," said Allen with a groan. "Oh, I do not want you to tell me!" she replied scornfully, "but tell the authorities. No doubt you will be rewarded with fifty thousand pounds--blood-money." "Dora! How can you speak like this to me?" "How else do you wish me to speak?" she retorted fiercely. "Do you think that I have water in my veins, to put up with your neglect in silence?" "It is for your own good." "You should permit me to be the best judge of that, Allen. My brain is in confusion from the event of last week. I have suffered indescribably. With Lady Burville and her fainting in church came disaster. That woman caused a breach between us----" "No, no! Lady Burville has nothing to do with my secret." "Will you deny that her name was mentioned several times between you and Mr. Edermont?" "No, I will not deny it," he returned doggedly. "All the same, she has nothing to do with the matter." "So you say, for the preservation of your secret," said Dora disdainfully; "but I believe that she has everything to do with the matter. And what is more," continued the girl, raising her voice, "I feel assured that indirectly she caused the death of my guardian." Allen turned even paler than before. "I assure you such is not the case, Dora." "I decline to take your word for it. I will only believe the evidence of my own senses, of my own researches." "Your own researches?" "Yes; I intend to find out this secret which is a bar to our marriage. To do so I must solve the mystery of Mr. Edermont's death." "I warn you not to do so;" cried Allen, breathing heavily; "you are playing with fire!" "I'll take the risk of that--if risk there is. Allen," she said, placing her hands on his shoulders, "you laughed at my premonition of evil when I spoke to you of Lady Burville. You see I was right. Now I have a premonition of good. My researches will mend the breach between us, and bring about our marriage." "Impossible! and, moreover----" he hesitated. "Can you love me after the cruel way in which I have been forced to behave to you?" "Yes. You mention the poison and the antidote at once. You have been cruel, but you have been forced, as I truly believe, to be so. When I discover that force, I shall learn the bar to our marriage. If so, it can be removed." "I am afraid not," he replied, shaking his head. "In the meantime," she continued, as though she had not heard him, "as I am a pauper, I must remain at the Red House. But I refuse to do so in the company of that creature Joad, unless I have a companion. Will you let Mrs. Tice come and stay with me for a few weeks?"