threw himself into a chair, as if to recover the shock.
When again he removed his hand from his face, he saw lying before him on
the table an open note. The character was familiar; his own name struck
his eye,--it was the note which Caroline had sent the day before. As
no one heeded him, Lord Doltimore read on, and possessed himself of the
proof of his wife's guilt unseen.

The surgeon, now turning from De Montaigne, who had been rating him
soundly for the last few moments, addressed himself to Lord Doltimore.
"Your lordship," said he, "was, I hear, Lord Vargrave's most intimate
friend at Paris."

"I _his_ intimate friend?" said Doltimore, colouring highly, and in a
disdainful accent. "Sir, you are misinformed."

"Have you no orders to give, then, my lord?"

"None, sir. My presence here is quite useless. Good-day to you,
gentlemen."

"With whom, then, do the last duties rest?" said the surgeon, turning to
Maltravers and De Montaigne. "With the late lord's secretary?--I expect
him every moment; and here he is, I suppose,"--as Mr. Howard, pale, and
evidently overcome by his agitation, entered the apartment. Perhaps, of
all the human beings whom the ambitious spirit of that senseless clay
had drawn around it by the webs of interest, affection, or intrigue,
that young man, whom it had never been a temptation to Vargrave to
deceive or injure, and who missed only the gracious and familiar patron,
mourned most his memory, and defended most his character. The grief of
the poor secretary was now indeed overmastering. He sobbed and wept like
a child.

When Maltravers retired from the chamber of death, De Montaigne
accompanied him; but soon quitting him again, as Ernest bent his way
to Evelyn, he quietly rejoined Mr. Howard, who readily grasped at his
offers of aid in the last melancholy duties and directions.

CHAPTER VI.

IF we do meet again, why, we shall smile.--_Julius Caesar_.

THE interview with Evelyn was long and painful. It was reserved
for Maltravers to break to her the news of the sudden death of Lord
Vargrave, which shocked her unspeakably; and this, which made their
first topic, removed much constraint and deadened much excitement in
those which followed.

Vargrave's death served also to relieve Maltravers from a most anxious
embarrassment. He need no longer fear that Alice would be degraded in
the eyes of Evelyn. Henceforth the secret that identified the erring
Alice Darvil with the spotless Lady