"The blow fell upon me in so horridly public a way!" cried Vibert. "Just imagine the scene. There was the large drawing-room full of people,--my aunt was giving an afternoon party. We had the Montagues, Carpenters, stately Sir Richard,--the countess and all! The music had struck up; the couples were placed; I had asked Alice for the first dance; she and I stood at the top. We were laughing, chatting, and just beginning to dance. Suddenly the music stopped,--musicians, dancers, every one looking in one direction. A policeman--astounding apparition!--was making his way up the room! Even then I was not in the least alarmed. I remember that I turned to Alice, and jestingly asked her whether she was to be taken up for stealing hearts! It was no jesting matter for me! When the fellow in blue laid his grasp on _my_ arm,--when he said that his business was with _me_,--I should have liked to have struck him to the earth; and then--I should have liked the floor to have opened beneath me!" Vibert, as he spoke, plunged the poker fiercely into the heart of the fire. "Only conceive," he continued, "what it was to have to walk down that long room, with a policeman's hand on my collar, and to feel (I dared not look about me to see) that every eye was watching my movements! I did indeed catch a glimpse of my aunt in her purple velvet, with her face as full of horror as if she had seen the Gorgon's head! I did hear Alice's exclamation of pity,--that was almost the worst of all; for such pity is akin to contempt! Then my poor uncle, stammering and confused at the dishonour done to his family and house, would fain have got me out of the clutch of the grim policeman; but he could not effect anything then, though his bail and my father's were accepted on the following day when I had been before the magistrate. I was led off from that grand house--from that gay throng--to--to--O Bruce! can you imagine your brother in the lock-up for a night! I wonder that I did not go crazy! And then to have to appear on the next day in a police-court, on a charge of felony! Horrible! horrible!--most horrible! I should wish, when this affair is over, to shut myself up in a hermitage, where no one should ever see or hear of me again. I shall never be able to endure meeting one of those who beheld me carried off to jail in charge of the police!" Vibert turned suddenly from the fire as he concluded the sentence, and saw his brother stretched on the sofa, quite unconscious of his presence, sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. CHAPTER XXIX. CHARGED WITH FELONY.