"Oh, your grace! you still believe me guilty of my good master's murder!" passionately exclaimed the man. "Ah, Heaven! what will become of me? I shall die unless I can have the stay of _some_ one's faith in me!" "Potts," said the duke, in a softened tone, "I do not now think that you had any active or conscious share in the foul murder of Sir Lemuel Levison. But not the less do I see that you are suffering from remorse. _You are still keeping something back from me!_" he added, very solemnly. The valet groaned, but made no answer. "That is the reason why I have no confidence in you," said his grace. The valet wrung his gaunt hands, but continued silent. "Now I do not ask you to confide in me; but I will give you this warning--so long as you hold in your bosom a secret which, if revealed, would bring the real criminal to justice, so long you will yourself remain the object of suspicion from others and the victim of remorse in yourself. Now, Potts, I must leave you; for I must get to Lone in time to catch the London express. Good-night," said the duke, as he moved away. "One moment more, oh, my lord duke! for the love of Heaven! One moment to do a piece of justice," pleaded the ex-valet, tottering after the young nobleman. "Well, well, what is it now?" inquired the latter, pausing and turning back. "That poor, misguided girl, Rose Cameron," said the valet. "Well, what of _her_, man?" impatiently demanded the young nobleman. "Listen, my lord duke! You saw her committed to prison on the charge of perjury." "A charge that she was self-convicted of." "My lord duke, she was not guilty of perjury!" sighed the valet. "What! What is that you say?" quickly demanded the duke. "I say, Rose Cameron, poor misguided girl that she was, did not, however, perjure herself--_intentionally_ I mean," repeated John Potts. "Is she _mad_, then? The victim of a monomania?" gravely inquired the duke, fixing his eyes upon the troubled face of the valet. "No, your grace, she was never more in her right senses." "What do you mean? Do you _dare_--" "My lord duke, I dare nothing. I never was a daring man; if I had been, the daring would have been taken out of me by the troubles of this last quarter of a year! But, my lord duke, I am right. Rose Cameron did not intentionally perjure herself, neither is she mad. Rose Cameron believes in her heart every word of the statement she made under oath in the open court this morning." While the man thus spoke, the duke looked fixedly at him in perfect silence, in the forlorn hope of hearing some solution to the enigma.