e very prudent, my lady, to remove your magnificent jewels.
Shall I not take them from your pocket, and replace them in their
caskets, and lock them safely away?"

"I will attend to them myself, Antoinette," she panted, hoarsely. "Help
me off with this--this ball-dress, and get me to bed. I am fagged out
for want of sleep. I do not want any breakfast; do not awake me."

Looking at her mistress keenly from beneath her long lashes, Antoinette
saw that she was terribly agitated.

Long after the inner door had closed on her, Antoinette sat thinking,
and muttered, thoughtfully:

"I shall find out where my lady was last night. Trust me to learn her
secret, and then she will be in my power!"

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Victor Lamont had been quite correct in his surmise. Jay Gardiner had
reached Newport several hours later than he had calculated, and had gone
directly to his own apartments.

He was so tired with his long trip that he would have thrown himself on
his couch just as he was, had not a letter, addressed to himself,
staring at him from the mantel, caught his eye, and on the lower
left-hand corner he observed the words: "Important. Deliver at once."

Mechanically he took it down and tore the envelope. The superscription
seemed familiar--he had seen that handwriting before.

He looked down at the bottom of the last page, to learn who his
correspondent was, and saw, with surprise, and not a little annoyance,
that it was signed "Anonymous."

He was about to crush it in his hand and toss it into the waste-paper
basket, when it occurred to him that he might as well learn its
contents.

There were but two pages, and they read as follows:

"To DOCTOR JAY GARDINER, ESQ., Ocean House, Newport.

"_Dear Sir_--I know the utter contempt in which any
warning given by an anonymous writer is held, but,
notwithstanding this, I feel compelled to communicate
by this means, that which has become the gossip of
Newport--though you appear to be strangely deaf and
blind to it.

"To be as brief as possible, I refer to the conduct of
your wife's flirtations, flagrant and above board, with
Victor Lamont, the English lord, or duke, or count, or
whatever he is. I warn you to open your eyes and look
about, and listen a bit, too.

"When your wife, in defiance of all the proprieties, is
seen riding alone with this Lamont at midnight, when
you are known to b