you can oblige me with the gentleman's name and
address I will arrange that he shall never trouble you again."

"No scandal, I beg of you," she cried.

"Madame, I could not so far forget myself. Rest assured that no lady's
name would ever be mentioned by me in the course of such an incident.
In bidding me to go to blazes this gentleman has relieved me from the
embarrassment of having to invent a cause of quarrel."

"Colonel Gerard," said the lady, earnestly, "you must give me your word
as a soldier and a gentleman that this matter goes no farther, and
also that you will say nothing to my brother about what you have seen.
Promise me!"

"If I must."

"I hold you to your word. Now drive with me to High Combe, and I will
explain as we go."

The first words of her explanation went into me like a sabre-point.

"That gentleman," said she, "is my husband."

"Your husband!"

"You must have known that I was married." She seemed surprised at my
agitation.

"I did not know."

"This is Lord George Dacre. We have been married two years. There is no
need to tell you how he wronged me. I left him and sought a refuge under
my brother's roof. Up till to-day he has left me there unmolested. What
I must above all things avoid is the chance of a duel betwixt my husband
and my brother. It is horrible to think of. For this reason Lord Rufton
must know nothing of this chance meeting of to-day."

"If my pistol could free you from this annoyance----"

"No, no, it is not to be thought of. Remember your promise, Colonel
Gerard. And not a word at High Combe of what you have seen!"

Her husband! I had pictured in my mind that she was a young widow. This
brown-faced brute with his "go to blazes" was the husband of this tender
dove of a woman. Oh, if she would but allow me to free her from so
odious an encumbrance! There is no divorce so quick and certain as that
which I could give her. But a promise is a promise, and I kept it to the
letter. My mouth was sealed.

In a week I was to be sent back from Plymouth to St. Malo, and it seemed
to me that I might never hear the sequel of the story. And yet it was
destined that it should have a sequel and that I should play a very
pleasing and honourable part in it.

It was only three days after the event which I have described when Lord
Rufton burst hurriedly into my room.

His face was pale and his manner that of a man in extreme agitation.

"Gerard," he cried, "have you seen Lady Ja