h you would procure
for me. I want a man's coat and cap, rough ones, such as a burglar
might wear. You see, if by any chance I am met by those women going
downstairs, or returning to my room, I must give them a start. Dressed
up like that, and with a piece of crape over my face, I should be
taken for a burglar. I don't think Miss Penfold is very easily
frightened; but at the same time I fancy I might alarm her into
returning to her room, and should be able to get back to mine before
the house was roused. I shall always unfasten a window on the ground
floor and lift it a little, so that it would be supposed that the
intruder entered and escaped that way."

Mr. Tallboys smiled a little, but said, "It is a very risky business,
Mrs. Conway. Miss Penfold is just the sort of woman to keep pistols in
her bedroom."

"One must risk something when one is fighting for a fortune," Mrs.
Conway said quietly. "I hope that I shall not be heard. There are
always creakings and noises in an old house like that. The doors are
thick and well fitting, and there is little chance of my footsteps
being heard. It is only by an accident, such as one of them being
unable to sleep and getting up and walking over the house, that they
are likely to run against me, and it is not probable she would have a
pistol in her hand then. No, I do not think there is the least fear of
anything of that sort. The only fear I have is of being detected in
some other way before I have done what I have to do, and the risk of
that grows less and less every day.

"I have been there over four months now, and am perfectly at home. I
was at first afraid of a sudden meeting with Mr. Withers, or his wife,
or Mabel; but that has passed away now. I saw he recognized me the
first Sunday in church, and I wrote to him; of course sending the
letter to Dover to be sent back from there. He answered me praying me
to give up what he called my mad-brained attempt, and saying it made
him and his wife quite unhappy to think of my being at the Hall. He
told me that at present they had not told Mabel that I was there, but
had sent her away to school at Bath. She is with an aunt, and will not
be home again for some months; so I am safe from her. No, I am not in
the least anxious about myself. I cannot say as much about Ralph. His
regiment has just gone out to Belgium, and I suppose there will be
fighting presently. I think of that more now than I do of this will,
Mr. Tallboys. If I had