have already spoken, said
nothing, but followed in a way to show that his mind was equally made
up.

The position in which Mr. Sedgwick found himself placed was far from
enviable. With a glance at the two remaining gentlemen, he turned
towards the ladies now standing in a close group at the other end of the
room. One of them was his wife, and he quivered internally as he noted
the deep red of her distressed countenance. But it was the others he
addressed, singling out, with the rare courtesy which was his by nature,
the one comparative stranger, Darrow's niece, a Rochester girl, who
could not be finding this, her first party in Boston, very amusing.

"I hope you will appreciate the dilemma in which I have been placed by
these gentlemen," he began, "and will pardon----"

But here he noticed that she was not in the least attending; her eyes
were on the handsome figure of Hugh Clifford, her uncle's neighbour at
table, who in company with Mr. Hammersley was still hesitating in the
doorway. As Mr. Sedgwick stopped his useless talk, the two passed in and
the sound of her fluttering breath as she finally turned a listening ear
his way, caused him to falter as he repeated his assurances and begged
her indulgence.

She answered with some conventional phrase which he forgot while
crossing the room. But the remembrance of her slight satin-robed figure,
drawn up in an attitude whose carelessness was totally belied by the
anxiety of her half-averted glance, followed him into the presence of
the four men awaiting him. Four? I should say five, for Robert was still
there, though in a corner by himself, ready, no doubt, to share any
attempt which the others might make to prove their innocence.

"The ladies will await us in the music-room," announced the host on
entering; and then paused, disconcerted by the picture suddenly
disclosed to his eye. On one side stood the two who had entered first,
with their eyes fixed in open sternness on young Clifford, who, quite
alone on the rug, faced them with a countenance of such pronounced
pallor that there seemed to be nothing else in the room. As his features
were singularly regular and his almost perfect mouth accentuated by a
smile as set as his figure was immobile, the effect was so startling
that not only Mr. Sedgwick, but every other person present, no doubt,
wished that the plough had never turned the furrow which had brought
this wretched coin to light.

However, the affair had gone