"'It is, your ladyship,' was my reply, producing and holding before her the bloody evidence of the deed--'and here is the tongue of Lagrange,--the tongue that would have proclaimed your shame and effected your ruin, had its owner lived; but he now lies a cold corpse, and this once mischievous member is now as powerless as a piece of carrion beneath a butcher's shamble.' "'And the body--how will you dispose of that?' she asked, shuddering, and turning from the sickening spectacle with disgust. "'To-night it shall be sunk deep in the waters of the Thames,' I replied; and then, in a more familiar manner than I had as yet ventured to assume, I reminded her ladyship of the _reward_ she had promised me, as soon as the job should be completed. Again she shuddered;--and turned deadly pale; and with a bitter smile, which seemed to me to be expressive of hatred and contempt combined, she answered-- "'You are right, Simpson; you have obeyed my wishes, and merit your reward,--but not now, not now! Come to my chamber at midnight; I shall expect you,--you understand. Go now--leave me; remove all traces of your crime. I shall take care to have a quantity of plate removed from the house to-night, and destroyed, and when his lordship returns to-morrow, he will imagine that Lagrange, despite his supposed faithfulness and integrity, has absconded and stolen the plate,--that will account to him for the valet's sudden disappearance. Leave me.' "'Remember, at midnight, your ladyship,' said I, and left her; but when I had closed the door of the apartment, I imagined that I heard her give utterance to a scornful laugh. However, I attributed it to her gratification at the death of Lagrange, and descending to the wine cellar, I busied myself in washing away the stains of blood from the floor. How impatiently I longed for the arrival of midnight! the hour that was to bring with it the reward of my crime!