uch: I ask no questions, but I cannot tell Davie
not to talk to me!"

"Of course not.--Lord Morven is a strange man. I do not understand him,
and I do not want to judge him, or make you judge him. But I must speak
of a fact, concerning yourself, which I have no right to keep from you."

Once more a pause followed. There was nothing now of the grand dame
about Arctura.

"Has nothing occurred to wake a doubt in you?" she said at last,
abruptly. "Have you not suspected him of--of using you in any way?"

"I have had an undefined ghost of a suspicion," answered Donal. "Please
tell me what you know."

"I should know nothing--although, my room being near his, I should have
been the more perplexed about some things--had he not made an
experiment upon myself a year ago."

"Is it possible?"

"I sometimes fancy I have not been so well since. It was a great shock
to me when I came to myself:--you see I am trusting you, Mr. Grant!"

"I thank you heartily, my lady," said Donal.

"I believe," continued lady Arctura, gathering courage, "that my uncle
is in the habit of taking some horrible drug for the sake of its effect
on his brain. There are people who do so! What it is I don't know, and
I would rather not know. It is just as bad, surely, as taking too much
wine! I have heard himself remark to Mr. Carmichael that opium was
worse than wine, for it destroyed the moral sense more. Mind I don't
say it is opium he takes!"

"There are other things," said Donal, "even worse!--But surely you do
not mean he dared try anything of the sort on you!"

"I am sure he gave me something! For, once that I dined with him,--but
I cannot describe the effect it had upon me! I think he wanted to see
its operation on one who did not even know she had taken anything. The
influence of such things is a pleasant one, they say, at first, but I
would not go through such agonies as I had for the world!"

She ceased, evidently troubled by the harassing remembrance. Donal
hastened to speak.

"It was because of such a suspicion, my lady, that this evening I would
not even taste his wine. I am safe to-night, I trust, from the
insanity--I can call it nothing else--that possessed me the last two
nights."

"Was it very dreadful?" asked lady Arctura.

"On the contrary, I had a sense of life and power such as I could never
of myself have imagined!"

"Oh, Mr. Grant, do take care! Do not be tempted to take it again. I
don't know where it might not have