y doubt about your capacity to sustain a shock which
will strike you to the soul, for God's sake give up the idea of finding
out your husband's secret at once and forever!"

"I thank you for your warning, Major. I must face the consequences of
making the discovery, whatever they may be."

"You are positively resolved?"

"Positively."

"Very well. Take any time you please. The house, and every person in it,
are at your disposal. Ring the bell once if you want the man-servant.
Ring twice if you wish the housemaid to wait on you. From time to time I
shall just look in myself to see how you are going on. I am responsible
for your comfort and security, you know, while you honor me by remaining
under my roof."

He lifted my hand to his lips, and fixed a last attentive look on me.

"I hope I am not running too great a risk," he said--more to himself
than to me. "The women have led me into many a rash action in my time.
Have _you_ led me, I wonder, into the rashest action of all?"

With those ominous last words he bowed gravely and left me alone in the
room.

CHAPTER X. THE SEARCH.

THE fire burning in the grate was not a very large one; and the outer
air (as I had noticed on my way to the house) had something of a wintry
sharpness in it that day.

Still, my first feeling, when Major Fitz-David left me, was a feeling of
heat and oppression, with its natural result, a difficulty in breathing
freely. The nervous agitation of the time was, I suppose, answerable for
these sensations. I took off my bonnet and mantle and gloves, and opened
the window for a little while. Nothing was to be seen outside but a
paved courtyard, with a skylight in the middle, closed at the further
end by the wall of the Major's stables. A few minutes at the window
cooled and refreshed me. I shut it down again, and took my first step
on the way of discovery. In other words, I began my first examination of
the four walls around me, and of all that they inclosed.

I was amazed at my own calmness. My interview with Major Fitz-David had,
perhaps, exhausted my capacity for feeling any strong emotion, for the
time at least. It was a relief to me to be alone; it was a relief to me
to begin the search. Those were my only sensations so far.

The shape of the room was oblong. Of the two shorter walls, one
contained the door in grooves which I have already mentioned as
communicating with the front room; the other was almost entirely
occupied by the