so low that
I could not catch a word.

Presently they got up and went away, while I, with aching head and
fast-beating heart, tried to think what to do. Everything was mystery. I
could not see a step before me. Why should Miss Staggles be so willing
to help Herod Voltaire, and what were the designs in his mind? What was
his purpose in getting at a correct estimate of Miss Forrest's
character?

I went to the house pondering these things in my mind, and, arriving
there, heard the hall clock strike the quarter, from which I knew it was
a quarter past six. We were to dine at seven that day, and, as I did not
usually make an elaborate toilette, I knew I had plenty of time. I felt
I could not go in for a few minutes; my brain seemed on fire. I turned
to take a walk towards the park gates, when I heard a footstep, and
turning, saw Simon Slowden.

"Can you give me ten minutes before dinner, sur?" he said.

"I dare say," I said.

He led me into the room in which we had spoken together before. "There's
something wrong, yer honour," he said in a low voice.

"How do you know?"

"Why, that 'ere Egyptian hev bin doggin' me all day. He's got a hinklin'
as how we're tryin' to match 'em, and reckons as how I'm yer friend.
Besides, to-day when I see you ride hoff with the young lady, I thinks
to myself, 'There's no knowin' what time he'll be back.' I know what
'tis, yer honour; hi've bin in the arms o' Wenus myself, and knows as
'ow a hour slips away like a minnit. So as there wur no tellin' if you
would get to the summer-house to-night at five o'clock, I thought I'd
just toddle up myself. But 'twas no go. I sees they two willains
a-talkin' together, and when that 'ere Woltaire went off by himself, the
other took it 'pon him to keep wi' me. I tried to git 'im off, but 'twas
no use; he stuck to me like a limpet to a rock."

"Perhaps it was all fancy, Simon."

"No fancy in me, but a lot o' judgment. Fact, sur, I've begun to think
for the fust time as 'ow some things in the Bible ain't true. In the
Psalms of Solomon it reads, 'Resist the devil and he'll go away
howlin'.' Well, I've resisted that 'ere devil, and he wouldn't go away
till he'd knowed as how he'd played his little game;" and Simon looked
very solemn indeed.

"Is that all, Simon?"

"All, yer honour. 'Tisn't much, you think; but to me it looks mighty
suspicious, as I said to my sweetheart when I see her a-huggin' and
kissin' the coachman."

I went away laughing,