d you have made it out?"

"No, I have not."

"Of what use is it, then?"

"I think it may be of some importance, or it would not have been kept
where it was, and it would not have been written in cipher."

"What can you do with it?" asked Gualtier, after some silence.

"I do not yet see what I can do with it, but others may."

"What others?"

"I hope to find some friend who may have more skill in cryptography
than I have, and may be able to decipher it."

"Can you not decipher it at all?"

"Only in part."

"And what is it that you have found out?"

"I will tell you some other time, perhaps."

"You object to tell me now?"

"Yes."

"When will you tell me?"

"When we are better acquainted."

"Are we not pretty well acquainted now?"

"Not so well as I hope we shall be hereafter."

"I shall wait most patiently, then," said Gualtier, earnestly, "till
our increased intimacy shall give me some more of your confidence.
But might you not give me some general idea of that which you think
you have discovered?"

Miss Krieff hesitated.

"Do not let me force myself into your confidence," said Gualtier.

"No," said Miss Krieff, in that cold, repellent manner which she
could so easily assume. "There is no danger of that. But I have no
objection to tell you what seems to me to be the general meaning of
that which I have deciphered."

"What is it?"

"As far as I can see," said Miss Krieff, "it charges General Pomeroy
with atrocious crimes, and implicates him in one in particular, the
knowledge of which, if it be really so, can be used against him with
terrible--yes, fatal effect. I now can understand very easily why he
was so strangely and frantically eager to betroth his child to the
son of Lord Chetwynde--why he trampled on all decency, and bound his
own daughter, little more than a baby, to a stranger--why he
purchased Guy Molyneux, body and soul, for money. All is plain from
this. But, after all, it is a puzzle. He makes so high a profession
of honor that if his profession were real he would have thought of a
betrothal any where except _there_. Oh, if Lord Chetwynde only had
the faintest conception of this!"

"But what is it?" cried Gualtier, with eager curiosity, which was
stimulated to the utmost by Miss Krieff's words and tones.

"I will tell you some other time," said Miss Krieff, resuming her
repellent tone--"not now. If I find you worthy of my confidence, I
will give it to you."

"I will try t