"Yes, on condition that you make no attempt to run away with the girl from that madhouse. I speak in your own interest. You will get into trouble if you take an insane woman from her lawful guardian." "You seem to be quite certain that Mavis is mad," said Gerald bitterly, "however, as you know my secret, and I am at your mercy, I promise." "I think that you are very ungrateful," cried Mrs. Crosbie, "many another woman would have declined to keep, what you call, the secret at all." "I have made a mistake," confessed Gerald, and he could have kicked himself, that he, a man of the world, should be such a fool. "Well," said Mrs. Crosbie, as the door opened to admit the servant with afternoon tea, "let us say no more about it. I promise to hold my tongue for a month, and you promise to leave the girl alone meanwhile." Gerald waited until the tea-tray was arranged and the girl had departed. "No," he said decisively. "I have been wrong, and you have shown me my duty. I shall call on Major Rebb to-morrow, and explain." "You cannot," replied Mrs. Crosbie, "the Major is in Devonshire." This announcement complicated matters. "Then I follow Rebb to Devonshire," said Gerald doggedly; "my mistake must be put right." CHAPTER X. THE AMULET. It is admitted that Man as a whole is not infallible, but each individual man has a secret belief that he is. Haskins was no more complacent than other mortals--in fact, less so--yet he had an idea that his caution and common-sense invariably prevented his making mistakes. Assuredly, as a rule, he was rarely in error, but to every rule there is an exception, and Haskins' ill-judged frankness to Mrs. Crosbie was the exception in this case. It said much for Gerald's sane view of life that he recognized his mistake at once, and at the cost of some unpleasantness hastened to correct it. This entailed an interview with Major Rebb, which was likely to be a stormy one. At the outset Gerald believed that he had read Mrs. Crosbie's character all wrong, and that even after years of close companionship--since she had been so intimate with his mother--he knew very little about her. Had she really been that which he believed her to be, she would--he thought immediately on leaving Ladysmith Court--have readily helped him in his somewhat eccentric wooing. But on calmer reflection he arrived at the conclusion that he, himself, was in error.