Rona was startled out of her attitude of reserve. "In prison!" she cried in horror. "_Again_--you were about to add," he suggested with a sneer. She quivered at the unjust taunt. But she dared not reproach him. She dare not trench upon any subject which would unlock the past. Her letter lay like an iron bar between them. She guessed that he felt it as strongly as she did. "Do you wish not to tell me anything about it?" she asked with quiet pride, when she had swallowed her feeling. "I am really more than sorry to have given poor Denzil another false scare," said Felix. "By the way, I hardly like to ask it--but do you object to my smoking?" "Of course not," she said, impatiently. "I was forgetting. Perhaps you will join me?" he went on, with elaborate politeness, offering a silver box of cigarettes. She shook her head without a word, with nothing but a gesture of refusal. He lit up, tossed away his match, and leaning forward, remarked, with his eyes fixed upon the side of the road, "This is the second time he has thought that he has got rid of me--that I was safely and permanently out of his way. And once more I turn up! I assure you I pity him. And, really, I am not so much to blame as one might think, either this time or last time. In Deptford, you know how it was that I failed to eliminate myself. This time, I could not have ceased to exist without pretty well breaking up dear old Vronsky. But it's rough on Denzil, all the same." Rona was filled with indignation. "You do your brother great injustice," she said, warmly. "I always did, I fancy," was the cool response. "My opinion can, however, matter very little to him, who has so much besides." There was a pause, the girl too much hurt to speak. Perhaps he felt that he had been cruel, for after a while, he went on--"But what is it that you wish to know?"--and his voice was more gentle. "About my disappearing? Well, to say the truth, that was a plot, arranged between the Governor and myself. Let me see--I believe I have mentioned to you a person called Cravatz?--Ah, of course, you already know that he was executed this morning. Well, we found out that Cravatz had a spy in Vronsky's service, and I disappeared in order to throw them off the scent. Everything depended upon Vronsky not being in the know. So I was waylaid upon the road, between the Governor's house and Savlinsky, and ostensibly kidnapped. But I was all the time at Nicolashof, within a few miles of the poor old chap. After a while, the Governor contrived to give him a hint, though too late, unfortunately, to prevent his stirring up Denzil about the matter. As soon as Cravatz was taken, the Governor sent down a party to Gretz, on Government business, and I went with them, disguised as one of the police. It was well managed. Nobody but Vronsky knows where I have been all the time. Quite a plot, was it not?"