rd Chetwynde looked all around the room. Then he rose.

"Come into the library," said he. "Perhaps it is something very
important; and if so, there need be no listeners."

Saying this he led the way in silence, followed by Zillah. Arriving
there he motioned Zillah to a seat, and took a chair opposite hers,
looking at her with a glance of perplexity and curiosity. Amidst this
there was an air of apprehension about him, as though he feared that
the secret which Zillah wished to tell might be connected with those
events in his life which he wished to remain unrevealed. This
suspicion was natural. His own secret was so huge, so engrossing,
that when one came to him as Zillah did now, bowed down by the weight
of another secret, he would naturally imagine that it was connected
with his own. He sat now opposite Zillah, with this fear in his face,
and with the air of a man who was trying to fortify himself against
some menacing calamity.

"I have been in very deep trouble," began Zillah, timidly, and with
downcast eyes. "This time I ventured into dear papa's study--and I
happened to examine his desk."

She hesitated.

"Well?" said the Earl, in a low voice.

"In the desk I found a secret drawer, which I would not have
discovered except by the merest chance; and inside of this secret
drawer I found some papers, which--which have filled me with
anxiety."

"A secret drawer?" said the Earl, as Zillah again paused. "And what
were these papers that you found in it?" There was intense anxiety in
the tones of his voice as he asked this question.

"I found there," said Zillah, "a paper written in cipher. There was a
key connected with it, by means of which I was able to decipher it."

"Written in cipher? How singular!" said the Earl, with increasing
anxiety. "What could it possibly have been?"

Zillah stole a glance at him fearfully and inquiringly. She saw that
he was much excited and most eager in his curiosity.

"What was it?" repeated the Earl. "Why do you keep me in suspense?
You need not be afraid of me, my child. Of course it is nothing that
I am in any way concerned with; and even if it were--why--at any
rate, tell me what it was."

The Earl spoke in a tone of feverish excitement, which was so unlike
any thing that Zillah had ever seen in him before that her
embarrassment was increased.

"It was something," she went on, desperately, and in a voice which
trembled with agitation, "with which you are connected--some