yll sat back, his legs crossed, his elbows on his chair-arms, his
finger-tips together. "The thing I have to tell you is of some gravity,"
he announced by way of preface.

Rotherby took a seat by the desk, his hand upon the treasonable
letters. "Proceed, sir," he said, importantly. Mr. Caryll nodded, as in
acknowledgment of the invitation.

"I will admit, before going further, that in spite of the cheerful
countenance I maintained before your lordship's friend, the bumbailiff,
and your lackeys, I recognize that you have me in a very dangerous
position."

"Ah!" from his lordship in a breath of satisfaction, and

"Ah!" from Hortensia in a gasp of apprehension.

Her ladyship retained a stony countenance, and a silence that sorted
excellently with it.

"There is," Mr. Caryll proceeded, marking off the points on his fingers,
"the incident at Maidstone; there is your ladyship's evidence that I
was the bearer of just such a letter on the day that first I came here;
there is the dangerous circumstance--of which Mr. Green, I am sure, will
not fail to make a deal--of my intimacy with Sir Richard Everard, and
my constant visits to his lodging, where I was, in fact, on the occasion
when he met his death; there is the fact that I committed upon Mr. Green
an assault with my snuff box for motives that, after all, admit of but
one acceptable explanation; and, lastly, there is the circumstance that,
apparently, if interrogated, I can show no good reason why I should be
in England at all, where no apparent interest has called me or keeps me.

"Now, these matters are so trivial that taken separately they have no
value whatever; taken conjointly, their value is not great; they do
not contain evidence enough to justify the hanging of a dog. And yet,
I realize that disturbed as the times are, fearful of sedition as the
government finds itself in consequence of the mischief done to public
credit by the South Sea disaster, and ready as the ministry is to see
plots everywhere and to make examples, pour discourager les autres, if
the accusation you intend is laid against me, backed by such evidence
as this, it is not impossible--indeed, it is not improbable--that it
may--ah--tend to shorten my life."

"Sir," sneered Rotherby, "I declare you should have been a lawyer. We
haven't a pleader of such parts and such lucidity at the whole bar."

Mr. Caryll nodded his thanks. "Your praise is very flattering, my lord,"
said he, with a wry smile