"This matter you will please leave entirely to me, Winnie," he repeated with determination. "We are both in danger--great danger; and that being so, it is incumbent upon me to act boldly and fearlessly. I mean to get the key, and see what is within that safe." "But the girl?" asked her ladyship. "Within one week from to-day the girl will no longer trouble us," he said with an evil glance. "I do not intend that she shall remain a barrier against our good fortune any longer. Understand that, and remain perfectly calm, whatever may happen." "But you surely don't intend--you surely will not--" "I shall act as I think proper, and without any sentimental advice from you," he declared with a mock bow, but straightening himself instantly when at the door was heard a fumbling, and the gray-bearded man in blue spectacles, his thin white hand groping before him, slowly entered the room. CHAPTER XIV CONCERNS THE CURSE OF THE CARDINAL Gabrielle and Walter were seated together under one of the big oaks at the edge of the tennis-lawn at Connachan. With May Spencer and Lady Murie they had been playing; but his mother and the young girl had gone into the house for tea, leaving the lovers alone. "What's the matter with you to-day, darling?" he had asked as soon as they were out of hearing. "You don't seem yourself, somehow." She started quickly, and, pulling herself up, tried to smile, assuring him that there was really nothing amiss. "I do wish you'd tell me what it is that's troubling you so," he said. "Ever since I returned from abroad you've not been yourself. It's no use denying it, you know." "I haven't felt well, perhaps. I think it must be the weather," she assured him. But he, viewing the facts in the light of what he had noticed at their almost daily clandestine meetings, knew that she was concealing something from him. Before his departure on that journey to Japan she had always been so very frank and open. Nowadays, however, she seemed to have entirely changed. Her love for him was just the same--that he knew; it was her unusual manner, so full of fear and vague apprehension, which caused him so many hours of grave reflection. With her woman's cleverness, she succeeded in changing the topic of conversation, and presently they rose to join his mother at the tea-table in the drawing-room. Half-an-hour later, while they were idling in the hall together, she suddenly exclaimed, "Walter, you're great on Scottish history, so I want some information from you. I'm studying the legends and traditions of our place, Glencardine. What do you happen to know about them?" "Well," he laughed, "there are dozens of weird tales about the old castle. I remember reading quite a lot of extraordinary stories in some book or other about three years ago. I found it in the library here."