that case, another question,
if you please. Did you engage her, or did your wife?"

"I engaged her--"

"While I was away? While I was in total ignorance that you meant to have
a wife, or a wife's maid?"

"Yes."

"Under those circumstances, Mr. Noel, you cannot possibly suspect me of
conspiring to deceive you, with the maid for my instrument. Go into
the house, sir, while I wait here. Ask the woman who dresses Mrs. Noel
Vanstone's hair morning and night whether her mistress has a mark on the
left side of her neck, and (if so) what that mark is?"

He walked a few steps toward the house without uttering a word, then
stopped, and looked back at Mrs. Lecount. His blinking eyes were steady,
and his wizen face had become suddenly composed. Mrs. Lecount advanced a
little and joined him. She saw the change; but, with all her experience
of him, she failed to interpret the true meaning of it.

"Are you in want of a pretense, sir?" she asked. "Are you at a loss to
account to your wife's maid for such a question as I wish you to put to
her? Pretenses are easily found which will do for persons in her station
of life. Say I have come here with news of a legacy for Mrs. Noel
Vanstone, and that there is a question of her identity to settle before
she can receive the money."

She pointed to the house. He paid no attention to the sign. His face
grew paler and paler. Without moving or speaking he stood and looked at
her.

"Are you afraid?" asked Mrs. Lecount.

Those words roused him; those words lit a spark of the fire of manhood
in him at last. He turned on her like a sheep on a dog.

"I won't be questioned and ordered!" he broke out, trembling violently
under the new sensation of his own courage. "I won't be threatened and
mystified any longer! How did you find me out at this place? What do you
mean by coming here with your hints and your mysteries? What have you
got to say against my wife?"

Mrs. Lecount composedly opened the traveling-bag and took out her
smelling bottle, in case of emergency.

"You have spoken to me in plain words," she said. "In plain words, sir,
you shall have your answer. Are you too angry to listen?"

Her looks and tones alarmed him, in spite of himself. His courage began
to sink again; and, desperately as he tried to steady it, his voice
trembled when he answered her.

"Give me my answer," he said, "and give it at once."

"Your commands shall be obeyed, sir, to the letter," replied Mrs.
Lecou