se,
so they will bring pressure upon us."

"Just as we once tried to bring pressure upon them. It's all a matter of
money. We pay the price arranged--a mere matter of business."

"But how are we to get money?"

"By getting a glance at what's in that safe," he replied. "Once we get
to know this mysterious secret of Sir Henry's, I and my friends can get
money easily enough. Leave it all to me."

"But how--"

"This matter you will please leave entirely to me, Winnie," he repeated
with determination. "We are both in danger--great danger; and that being
so, it is incumbent upon me to act boldly and fearlessly. I mean to get
the key, and see what is within that safe."

"But the girl?" asked her ladyship.

"Within one week from to-day the girl will no longer trouble us," he
said with an evil glance. "I do not intend that she shall remain a
barrier against our good fortune any longer. Understand that, and remain
perfectly calm, whatever may happen."

"But you surely don't intend--you surely will not--"

"I shall act as I think proper, and without any sentimental advice from
you," he declared with a mock bow, but straightening himself instantly
when at the door was heard a fumbling, and the gray-bearded man in blue
spectacles, his thin white hand groping before him, slowly entered the
room.

CHAPTER XIV

CONCERNS THE CURSE OF THE CARDINAL

Gabrielle and Walter were seated together under one of the big oaks at
the edge of the tennis-lawn at Connachan. With May Spencer and Lady
Murie they had been playing; but his mother and the young girl had gone
into the house for tea, leaving the lovers alone.

"What's the matter with you to-day, darling?" he had asked as soon as
they were out of hearing. "You don't seem yourself, somehow."

She started quickly, and, pulling herself up, tried to smile, assuring
him that there was really nothing amiss.

"I do wish you'd tell me what it is that's troubling you so," he said.
"Ever since I returned from abroad you've not been yourself. It's no use
denying it, you know."

"I haven't felt well, perhaps. I think it must be the weather," she
assured him.

But he, viewing the facts in the light of what he had noticed at their
almost daily clandestine meetings, knew that she was concealing
something from him.

Before his departure on that journey to Japan she had always been so
very frank and open. Nowadays, however, she seemed to have entirely
changed. Her love for him was