"Poor Humphrey again!" exclaimed Mrs Lloyd, angrily; "let people talk about what they understand. I should like for any one to say anything to me." "But Martha," said Lloyd, after a pause. "Well?" "You'll not be rash in the morning--don't peril our position here out of an angry feeling." "You go to sleep," was the uncompromising response. And sighing wearily, the butler did go to sleep, his wife sitting listening hour after hour till nearly two, when there was the sound of a door opening, a burst of voices, steps in the hall, "Good nights!" loudly uttered, Pratt going upstairs to his room, whistling number one of the Lancers-quadrilles with all his might. Then came the closing of bedroom doors and silence. Mrs Lloyd sat for ten minutes more, then, taking her candle, she walked softly downstairs; went round dining- and drawing-rooms and study, examining locks, bolts, and shutters, and then went to the butler's pantry, gave a drag at the handle of the iron plate-closet, to satisfy herself that all was right there, and lastly made for the smoking-room. "Like a public-house," she muttered, as she crossed the hall, turned the handle with a snatch, and threw open the door, to find herself face to face with Trevor, who was sitting at a table writing a letter. "Mrs Lloyd!" "Not gone to bed!" The couple looked angrily at each other for a few moments, and then Trevor said, sternly-- "Why are you downstairs at this time of the night, Mrs Lloyd?" "The morning you mean, sir," said the housekeeper. "What am I down for?" she continued, angrily; "to see that the house is safe--that there's no fire left about--that doors are fastened, so that the house I've watched over all these years isn't destroyed by carelessness, and all going to rack and ruin." Trevor jumped up with an angry exclamation on his lips; but he checked it, and then spoke, quite calmly-- "Mrs Lloyd, I should be perfectly justified in speaking to you perhaps in a way in which you have never been spoken to before." "Pray do, then, Master--sir," jerked out Mrs Lloyd, looking white with anger. "In half a dozen things during the past evening you have wilfully disobeyed my orders. Why was this?" "To protect your interests and property," exclaimed the housekeeper. "Giving me credit for not knowing my own mind, and making me look absurd in the eyes of my friends." "I didn't mean to do anything of the kind, sir," said Mrs Lloyd, stoutly. "I'll grant that; and that you did it through ignorance," said Trevor. "I don't want to see the place I've taken care of for years go to ruin," said Mrs Lloyd.