ld go if she knew how. When I was
forced to leave her last night, she promised to see me again. And as
for being idle, and not doing anything;--why, I was out in Park Lane
last night, after you were in bed."

"What good did that do?"

"It didn't do any good, as it happened. But a fellow can only
try. I believe, after all, it would be easier down in the
country,--especially now that he has taken it into his head to look
after her."

Lady Monk sat silent for a few moments, and then she said in a low
voice, "What did she say to you when you were parting? What were her
exact words?" She, at any rate, was not deficient in energy. She
was anxious enough to see her purpose accomplished. She would have
conducted the matter with discretion, if the running away with Mr
Palliser's wife could, in very fact, have been done by herself.

"She said she would see me again. She promised it twice."

"And was that all?"

"What could she say more, when she was forced to go away?"

"Had she said that she would go with you?"

"I had asked her,--half a dozen times, and she did not once refuse. I
know she means it, if she knew how to get away. She hates him;--I'm
sure of it. A woman, you know, wouldn't absolutely say that she would
go, till she was gone."

"If she really meant it, she would tell you."

"I don't think she could have told me plainer. She said she would see
me again. She said that twice over."

Again Lady Monk sat silent. She had a plan in her head,--a plan that
might, as she thought, give to her nephew one more chance. But she
hesitated before she could bring herself to explain it in detail.
At first she had lent a little aid to this desired abduction of Mr
Palliser's wife, but in lending it had said no word upon the subject.
During the last season she had succeeded in getting Lady Glencora to
her house in London, and had taken care that Burgo should meet her
there. Then a hint or two had been spoken, and Lady Glencora had
been asked to Monkshade. Lady Glencora, as we know, did not go to
Monkshade, and Lady Monk had then been baffled. But she did not
therefore give up the game. Having now thought of it so much, she
began to speak of it more boldly, and had procured money for her
nephew that he might thereby be enabled to carry off the woman. But
though this had been well understood between them, though words had
been spoken which were sufficiently explicit, the plan had not been
openly discussed. Lady Monk had know