lizabeth did not answer; she had let her hair down and was beginning to
arrange it, shading her pale face with the floating tresses.

"Were you?" he inquired again.

"What did you ask?" she demanded.

He repeated the question.

"It does not seem quite probable," she said, walking away towards the
mirror.

"I thought that I saw you there only a few minutes since," he said.

Elizabeth was busy lighting a candle; after she had succeeded, she
replied:

"If you had seen me in the grounds would it have been so very singular."

"No; only as I left you lying down----"

She interrupted him with an impatient gesture.

"I am tired of this," she said passionately. "What is it you wish to
know--what do you suspect?"

"Nothing, Elizabeth; I only thought it was foolish if not dangerous to
go out on such a night."

He was ashamed of himself now, but she did not offer to help him in his
dilemma. She stood silent and still, as if waiting for him to leave the
room.

"We will wait tea for you," he said.

"Very well."

As he passed near the sofa his foot got entangled in a shawl which lay
on the floor; he picked it up--it was heavy with damp.

"I was given to understand that you had not been out," he exclaimed,
holding it towards her.

For an instant Elizabeth looked confused, then she snatched the shawl
from his hand, crying angrily:

"Well, sir, I was out--now are you satisfied?"

"Always deception," he said, "even in trifles."

"Of course," she exclaimed, in the same passionate tone, "you make it
necessary. I went out because these nervous attacks make me feel as if I
were choking--you are so suspicious, you see something to suspect in the
most trivial action."

"So you----"

"Told you a lie," she added, when he hesitated; "well, let it go at
that. Are you through with this examination--have you any more questions
to ask?"

"That tone--that look, Elizabeth; you are not like yourself!"

"No wonder--blame yourself for it. I cannot and will not endure this
system of _espionage_--I will have my liberty--that you may understand!"

Mellen's passionate temper flamed up in his face, but he controlled it
resolutely and did not speak.

"Be good enough to say all you wish and have done with the subject," she
continued in the same irritating tone, utterly unlike her old method of
parleying or enduring his evil words.

"I have nothing to ask," he said; "you are nervous and excited--we won't
quarrel to-night."

H