ve spoken a bitter word; bear with me for _her_ sake, who has none to
befriend her but myself."

She made me no answer, but looked out cold and stern into vacancy, her
pale features motionless, not a line or lineament betraying what was
passing within her.

"Why remain here then to provoke a catastrophe?" cried she, suddenly.
"If you have come for pleasure, you see enough to be aware there is
little more awaiting you."

"I have not come for pleasure. I am here to confer with Count Hunyadi on
a matter of business."

"And will some paltry success in a little peddling contract for the
Count's wine or his olives or his Indian corn compensate you for the
ruin you may bring on your father? Will it recompense you if his blood
be shed?"

There was a tone of defiant sarcasm in the way she spoke these words
that showed me, if I would not yield to her persuasions, she would not
hesitate to employ other means of coercion. Perhaps she mistook the
astonishment my face expressed for terror; for she went on: "It would be
well that you thought twice over it ere you make your breach with
your father irreparable. Remember, it is not a question of a passing
sentimentality or a sympathy, it is the whole story of your life is at
issue,--if you be anything, or anybody, or a nameless creature, without
belongings or kindred."

I sat for some minutes in deep thought. I was not sure whether I
understood her words, and that she meant to say it lay entirely with my
father to own or disown me, as he pleased. She seemed delighted at my
embarrassment, and her voice rung out with its own clear triumphant
cadence, as she said, "You begin at last to see how near the precipice
you have been straying."

"One moment, Madam," cried I. "If my mother be Lady Norcott, Sir Roger
cannot disown me; not to say that already, in an open court, he has
maintained his right over me and declared me his son."

"You are opening a question I will not touch, Digby," said she,
gravely,--"your mother's marriage. I will only say that the ablest
lawyers your father has consulted pronounce it more than questionable."

"And my father has then entertained the project of an attempt to break
it."

"This is not fair," cried she, eagerly; "you lead me on from one
admission to another, till I find myself revealing confidences to one
who at any moment may avow himself my enemy."

I raised my eyes to her face, and she met my glance with a look cold,
stern, and impassive, as