in the way of reply.

Mrs. Linley raised her head in alarm.

"Two!" she exclaimed--and looked at Mr. Sarrazin. "You only spoke of one
last night."

"And I add another this morning. Rest your poor head, Mrs. Linley, I
know how it aches; I know how it burns." He still persisted in speaking
to Mrs. Presty. "One of those two men will follow me to the station, and
see me off on my way to London. The other will look after you, or your
daughter, or the maid, or any other person who may try to get away into
hiding with Kitty. And they are both keeping close to the gate, in the
fear of losing sight of us in the fog."

"I wish we lived in the Middle Ages!" said Mrs. Presty.

"What would be the use of that, ma'am?"

"Good heavens, Mr. Sarrazin, don't you see? In those grand old days you
would have taken a dagger, and the gardener would have taken a dagger,
and you would have stolen out, and stabbed those two villains as a
matter of course. And this is the age of progress! The vilest rogue in
existence is a sacred person whose life we are bound to respect. Ah,
what good that national hero would have done who put his barrels of
gunpowder in the right place on the Fifth of November! I have always
said it, and I stick to it, Guy Fawkes was a great statesman."

In the meanwhile Mrs. Linley was not resting, and not listening to
the expression of her mother's political sentiments. She was intently
watching Mr. Sarrazin's face.

"There is danger threatening us," she said. "Do you see a way out of
it?"

To persist in trying to spare her was plainly useless; Mr. Sarrazin
answered her directly.

"The danger of legal proceedings to obtain possession of the child,"
he said, "is more near and more serious than I thought it right
to acknowledge, while you were in doubt which way to decide. I was
careful--too careful, perhaps--not to unduly influence you in a matter
of the utmost importance to your future life. But you have made up your
mind. I don't scruple now to remind you that an interval of time must
pass before the decree for your Divorce can be pronounced, and the care
of the child be legally secured to the mother. The only doubt and the
only danger are there. If you are not frightened by the prospect of a
desperate venture which some women would shrink from, I believe I see a
way of baffling the spies."

Mrs. Linley started to her feet. "Say what I am to do," she cried, "and
judge for yourself if I am as easily frightened a