While she had been sobbing out her complaint, her assailant had followed
up his advantage, and Mr. Benjamin Levy, in a rather loud check suit,
and with a cringing air, but with a certain dogged determination in his
manner, appeared. Mrs. Martival turned to him with quiet dignity, but
with flashing eyes.

"Sir, by what right do you dare to enter my house by force, and against
my command? I will not speak with you or know your business. I will have
no communication with you."

"Then your son will be hanged!" Mr. Benjamin said, with unaccustomed
bluntness.

Mrs. Martival trembled, and sank into a chair. Mr. Benjamin followed up
his advantage.

"I am not from the police. I have no connection with them. On the other
hand, I am considerably interested in saving your son, and I tell you
that I can put into your hands the means of doing so. Now, will you
listen to me?"

Something in Mrs. Martival's face checked him. The features had suddenly
become rigid, and an ashy pallor had stolen over them. Nicolette, who
had been lingering in the room, suddenly threw herself on her knees
beside her mistress's side, and caught hold of her hands.

"Oh, the wretch!" she cried, "the miserable wretch; he has killed my
mistress!"

He stood helplessly by while she ran backwards and forwards with cold
water, smelling salts, and other restoratives, keeping up all the while
a running fire of scathing comments upon his heartless conduct, of
which, needless to say, he understood not a single word. Beneath his
breath he cursed this unlucky fainting fit. He had already lost a day on
the way, and the time was short. What if she were to be ill--too ill to
be moved! The very thought made him restless and uneasy.

In the midst of the confusion Mrs. Martival's housekeeper returned from
her marketing in the little town, and to his relief he found that she
understood English. He interrupted Nicolette's shrill torrents of abuse
against him, and briefly explained the situation.

"I do not wish to force myself upon her," he said. "I do not wish to be
troublesome in any way. But when she is conscious, I want you just to
show her half a dozen words which I will write on the back of a card.
If, when she has read them, she still wishes me to go, I will do so
without attempting to see her again."

The woman nodded.

"Very well," she said; "wait outside."

He left the room and walked softly up and down the passage, eyeing with
some contempt the rich f