“You may thank your stars as you weren’t killed,” said the new-comer. “He meant it, sir, that fellow did.” “You think so? Well, he hasn’t succeeded, you see; and you think you can identify him?” “Among a thousand, sir,” said the man. “Just you put him before me in a crowd and I’ll pick him out afore you could say----” “Then why,” said Meredith, “haven’t you done it before now? Here are three weeks gone, and plenty of time for him to have got away.” “He’s not got away; I’ve kept my eye upon him, and I have said to the police, times and times, as I could lay my hands upon him as soon as ever he was wanted.” “I thought,” said Meredith, “a criminal was wanted from the moment he put himself in the power of the law. You should have secured him at once; to keep your eye upon a man is not a process known to the law.” “I don’t know about the law, sir,” said the man. “I know that I have been ready any day. I told ’em so the very first night, but they’ve never paid no attention to me--not till this gentleman was put on as knows me, and knows as he can trust in my word.” “Yes?” said Meredith, solemnly, “I’m glad to hear you can have such good recommendations. Is it necessary you should have a thousand to choose from before you tell us who my assailant is?--because, you see, it would be a little difficult to have them in here.” “Oh,” cried the man, angrily, “a deal fewer than a thousand will do--if you’ll just collect all there is in the house----” “In the house!” cried Mrs. Harwood, “but what is the use of that? We know beforehand that there is nobody in this house who would lay a finger----” she stopped with an indefinite choking sensation in her throat, suddenly perceiving that Dolff had gone away. It was not distinct enough to mean suspicion of Dolff--suspicion of Dolff! what folly and insanity! but why should he have gone away? “I thought as you said the young gentleman was here,” said the witness, turning to his guide. “I told you as you’d never find him when you came back.” “It don’t matter much,” said the other, in a low tone, “he can’t go far, there’s two of my mates outside.” The ladies did not catch the meaning of this colloquy, though it raised the most bewildering alarm in Mrs. Harwood’s breast. Gussy still thought of it alone as it affected the health of her beloved. She stood by him, her attention concentrated on him, watching whether he grew pale, whether he flushed, if he seemed tired. Her mother’s anxious look awakened no sympathy in Gussy’s mind. If she observed it at all she set it down to the same cause as made herself anxious, the fear that Meredith might be over-excited or fatigued. “Do you want the maids and all?” said Meredith, in his familiar tone of banter. “You don’t think much of me, my good man, if you think I could be battered like that by--Priscilla, for instance,” he said, turning to Mrs. Harwood with a laugh.