To the surprise of all, Dally had risen, and stood with her hands clenched, looking wildly from one to the other. "Can you walk to your room, Dally?" said Mary. The girl nodded sharply, then looked around wildly, and the full force of her trouble coming back, she burst into a passion of tears. "But where is Leo?" cried Salis. "Where is my sister?" He darted to the open window and looked out. "Want me, sir?" said a voice. "You there, Chegg? How's that?" "You telled me to watch, sir." "Have you seen any one pass?" "Only Miss Leo, sir," replied the man. Salis turned from the window, looking as if stunned. "Gone!" he said wonderingly. "Yes," cried Dally, mingling her words with sobs of rage and spite. "She's gone off with Tom Candlish." "And you--you wretch--you have helped her," cried Salis, seizing the girl by the arm. "I didn't. It isn't true. I've done everything to keep 'em apart; but they've cheated and deceived me," cried Dally. "She's gone up to London to meet him--and--and they've gone there." She tore an envelope from her pocket, and Salis snatched it from her hand to read the address in Craven Street. "Hartley," whispered Mary, clinging to him now, "is it true?" "Yes," he said hoarsely, "it must be true. Hush! I must leave you now. Mr Delton, will you stay in the house, and watch over my sister and my friend? I must go away at once." "There's no train till to-morrow morning at eight," sobbed Dally passionately; and she stamped her feet like an angry child as her hysterical fit began to return. "That will do!" said the old doctor sternly, as he grasped the girl's wrist once more, and she looked up at him in a startled way, and then quailed and subsided into a fit of sobbing. "Anything I can do, Mr Salis, you may depend on being done." Salis nodded; he could not speak for a moment, but gazed full in his sister's eyes. "Did you suspect this?" he whispered. "Oh, no, Hartley," she replied. "No; you could not have suspected." He drew a long breath, and seemed to be making an effort to check his agony of spirit, and to be forcing himself to act firmly. "Chegg," he cried from the window, "go round to the front door. I'll meet you there. Mrs Milt," he said, closing the window, "will you be good enough to see this girl to her room? Stay with her for the present. Mary, poor North is alone," he added; "go down." "And you, Hartley?" "I'll follow directly," he said; and as soon as the room was cleared, he turned to the old doctor. "You tasted that tea," he said sharply. "Yes; strongly flavoured with chloral," he said. "Chloral? How could that have got into the tea? And the girl's fit? Not epilepsy?" "Hysteria. Rage and disappointment," said the old doctor. "So it seems to me. There is more beneath the surface than appears. Mr Salis, what can I do to help you?" "Give me your prayers and ask me nothing," he replied sadly. "There is more beneath the surface, sir."