h, Gerard, what people you must have lived among! What shocking
ignorance of my lord's enormous fortune! He and his family have only just
returned to their country seat, after a long absence--parliament you
know, and foreign baths, and so on--and their English establishment is
not yet complete. I don't know what mistake you may not make next. Do
listen to what I want to say to you."

Listening, I must acknowledge, with an absent mind, my attention was
suddenly seized by Mrs. Roylake--without the slightest conscious effort
towards that end, on the part of the lady herself.

The first words that startled me, in her flow of speech, were these:

"And I must not forget to tell you of poor Lord Uppercliff's misfortune.
He had a fall, some time since, and broke his leg. As I think, he was so
unwise as to let a plausible young surgeon set the broken bone. Anyway,
the end of it is that my lord slightly limps when he walks; and pray
remember that he hates to see it noticed. Lady Rachel doesn't agree with
me in attributing her father's lameness to his surgeon's want of
experience. Between ourselves, the man seems to have interested her. Very
handsome, very clever, very agreeable, and the manners of a gentleman.
When his medical services came to an end, he was quite an acquisition at
their parties in London--with one drawback: he mysteriously disappeared,
and has never been heard of since. Ask Lady Lena about it. She will give
you all the details, without her elder sister's bias in favour of the
handsome young man. What a pretty compliment you are paying me! You
really look as if I had interested you."

Knowing what I knew, I was unquestionably interested.

Although the recent return of Lord Uppercliff and his daughter to their
country home had, as yet, allowed no opportunity of a meeting, out of
doors, between the deaf Lodger and the friends whom he had lost sight
of--no doubt at the time of his serious illness--still, the inevitable
discovery might happen on any day. What result would follow? And what
would be the effect on Lady Rachel, when she met with the fascinating
young surgeon, and discovered the terrible change in him?

CHAPTER X

WARNED!

We were alone in the glade, by the side of the spring. At that early hour
there were no interruptions to dread; but Cristel was ill at ease. She
seemed to be eager to get back to the cottage as soon as possible.

"Father tells me," she began abruptly, "he saw you at the boa