"Twenty-six come next Michael-mas." "Your residence?" "Are ye meaning my hame?" "Yes, your home." "I dinna just ken. It used to be Ben Lone on the Duk' o Harewood's estate, when I waur a lass. Sin I hae been a guid wife I hae bided in Westminster Road, Lunnun." At the mention of Westminster Road, the Duke of Hereward started slightly, and bent forward to give closer attention to the words of the witness. "With whom did you live in Westminster Road?" proceeded the examiner. "Wi' my ain guid man, ye daft fule!" exclaimed Rose Cameron, in a rage. "Wha else suld I bide wi'? And noo, ye'll speer nae mair questions anent my ain preevit life, for I'll nae answer any sic. A woman maunna gie testimony in open coort against her ain husband, I'm thinking." "Certainly not." "Sae I thocht!" said Rose Cameron, cunningly. "And sae ye'll speer nae mair questions anent my ain preevit affair; but just keep ye to the point, and it please ye! I am here to tell all I ken anent the murther and robbery at Castle Lone! Ay! and I will tell a' hang wha' it may!" she added, with a most vindictive glare at the Duke of Hereward. "The witness is right so far. We have nothing whatever to do with her domestic status. Proceed with the examination, and keep to the point," interposed the judge. "We will, my lord. We only wished to prove the fact that the witness was living on the most intimate terms with one of the parties suspected of the murder." "I waur living wi' my ain husband, as I telt ye before, ye born idiwat! An' I'm no ca'd upon to witness for or against him. Sae I'll tell ye a' I ked anent the murther and the robbery at Castle Lone; but de'il hae me gin I tell ye onything else!" exclaimed Rose Cameron. "The witness is quite right in her premises, though censurable in her manner of expressing them. Proceed with the examination," said the judge. The assistant Q.C. bowed to the Bench and turned to the witness. "Tell us, then, where you were on the night of the murder." "I waur in the grounds o' Castle Lone." "At what time were you there?" "Frae ten till twal o' the clock." "Were you alone?" "For a guid part of the time I waur my lane i' the castle court." "What took you out on the castle grounds alone at so late an hour?" "I went there to keep my tryste with the Markis of Arondelle," answered the witness, with a sly, malignant glance at the young nobleman whose name she thus publicly profaned! The Duke of Hereward started, and fixed his eyes sternly and inquiringly upon the bold, handsome face of the witness. Her eyes did not for an instant quail before his gaze. On the contrary, they opened wide in a bold, derisive stare, until she was recalled by the questions of the examiner. "Witness! Do you mean to say, upon your oath, that you went to Castle Lone at midnight to meet the Marquis of Arondelle?"