ffair; and now, as you are in my hands, Mr. Maitland,--completely
in _my_ hands,--I am peremptory, and my first orders are that you keep
close arrest. Raikes will see that you are duly fed, and that you have
your letters and the newspapers; but mind, on any account, no visitors
without my express leave: do you hear me, sir?"

"I do; and all I would say is this, that if the tables should ever turn,
and it would be my place to impose conditions, take my word for it, I
'll be just as absolute. Do you hear me, madam?"

"I do; and I don't understand, and I don't want to understand you," said
she, in some confusion. "Now, good-bye. It is almost day. I declare that
gray streak there is daybreak!"

"On, Alice, if you would let me say one word--only one--before we part."

"I will not, Mr. Maitland, and for this reason, that I intend we should
meet again."

"Be it so," said he, sadly, and turned away. After he had walked a few
paces, he stopped and turned round; but she was already gone, how and in
what direction he knew not. He hurried first one way, then another, but
without success. If she had passed into the house,--and, of course, she
had,--with what speed she must have gone! Thoughtful, but not unhappy,
he returned to his room, if not fully assured that he had done what was
wisest, well disposed to hope favorably for the future.

CHAPTER XXV. JEALOUS TRIALS

When Mrs. Maxwell learned, in the morning, that Mr. Maitland was
indisposed and could not leave his room, that the Commodore had gone off
in the night, and Mark and Mrs. Trafford had started by daybreak, her
amazement became so insupportable that she hastened from one of her
guests to the other, vainly asking them to explain these mysteries.

"What a fidgety old woman she is!" said Beck Graham, who had gone over
to Bella Lyle, then a prisoner in her room from a slight cold. "She has
been rushing over the whole house, inquiring if it be possible that my
father has run away with Alice, that your brother is in pursuit of them,
and Mr. Maitland taken poison in a moment of despair. At all events, she
has set every one guessing and gossiping at such a rate that all thought
of archery is forgotten, and even our private theatricals have lost
their interest in presence of this real drama."

"How absurd!" said Bella, languidly.

"Yes, it's very absurd to fill one's house with company, and give them
no better amusement than the chit-chat of a boarding-house. I declar