r. And you told her lies in order to
extort money under false pretences.'

He shrugged his shoulders. 'You are too clever for me, young lady,' he
broke out. 'I have nothing to say to you. But Lady Georgina, Mrs.
Evelegh--you are human--let me go! Reflect; I have things I could tell
that would make both of you look ridiculous. That journey to Malines,
Lady Georgina! Those Indian charms, Mrs. Evelegh! Besides, you have
spoiled my game. Let that suffice you! I can practise in Switzerland no
longer. Allow me to go in peace, and I will try once more to be
indifferent honest!'

[Illustration: INCH BY INCH HE RETREATED.]

He backed slowly towards the door, with his eyes fixed on them. I stood
by and waited. Inch by inch he retreated. Lady Georgina looked down
abstractedly at the carpet. Mrs. Evelegh looked up abstractedly at the
ceiling. Neither spoke another word. The rogue backed out by degrees.
Then he sprang downstairs, and before they could decide was well out
into the open.

Lady Georgina was the first to break the silence. 'After all, my dear,'
she murmured, turning to me, 'there was a deal of sound English
common-sense about Dogberry!'

I remembered then his charge to the watch to apprehend a rogue. 'How if
'a will not stand?'

'Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the
rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave.' When
I remembered how Lady Georgina had hob-nobbed with the Count from Ostend
to Malines, I agreed to a great extent both with her and with Dogberry.

V

THE ADVENTURE OF THE IMPROMPTU MOUNTAINEER

The explosion and evaporation of Dr. Fortescue-Langley (with whom were
amalgamated the Comte de Laroche-sur-Loiret, Mr. Higginson the courier,
and whatever else that versatile gentleman chose to call himself)
entailed many results of varying magnitudes.

In the first place, Mrs. Evelegh ordered a Great Manitou. That, however,
mattered little to 'the firm,' as I loved to call us (because it shocked
dear Elsie so); for, of course, after all her kindness we couldn't
accept our commission on her purchase, so that she got her machine cheap
for L15 from the maker. But, in the second place--I declare I am
beginning to write like a woman of business--she decided to run over to
England for the summer to see her boy at Portsmouth, being certain now
that the discoloration of her bangle depended more on the presence of
sulphur in the india-rubber bottle th