person to advise
them. In the meanwhile, silence toward their stepmother--silence toward
every one till their father came back!

They waited and waited. One after another the precious hours, pregnant
with the issues of life and death, followed each other on the dial. Lady
Winwood returned alone. She had left her husband at the House of Lords.
Dinner-time came, and brought with it a note from his lordship. There
was a debate at the House. Lady Winwood and his daughters were not to
wait dinner for him.

TENTH SCENE.

Green Anchor Lane.

An hour later than the time at which he had been expected, Richard
Turlington appeared at his office in the city.

He met beforehand all the inquiries which the marked change in him
must otherwise have provoked, by announcing that he was ill. Before he
proceeded to business, he asked if anybody was waiting to see him. One
of the servants from Muswell Hill was waiting with another parcel
for Miss Lavinia, ordered by telegram from the country that morning.
Turlington (after ascertaining the servant's name) received the man in
his private room. He there heard, for the first time, that Launcelot
Linzie had been lurking in the grounds (exactly as he had supposed) on
the day when the lawyer took his instructions for the Settlement and the
Will.

In two hours more Turlington's work was completed. On leaving the
office--as soon as he was out of sight of the door--he turned eastward,
instead of taking the way that led to his own house in town. Pursuing
his course, he entered the labyrinth of streets which led, in that
quarter of East London, to the unsavory neighborhood of the river-side.

By this time his mind was made up. The forecast shadow of meditated
crime traveled before him already, as he threaded his way among his
fellow-men.

He had been to the vestry of St. Columb Major, and had satisfied himself
that he was misled by no false report. There was the entry in the
Marriage Register. The one unexplained mystery was the mystery of
Launce's conduct in permitting his wife to return to her father's house.
Utterly unable to account for this proceeding, Turlington could only
accept facts as they were, and determine to make the most of his time,
while the woman who had deceived him was still under his roof. A hideous
expression crossed his face as he realized the idea that he had got her
(unprotected by her husband) in his house. "When Launcelot Linzie _does_
come to claim her," he