arded by a grateful look. Seeing nothing, suspecting nothing, they
advanced together nearer and nearer to the end.

"Once or twice," Emily continued, "I spoke to you of my poor father,
when we were at Monksmoor--and I must speak of him again. You could have
no interest in inquiring about a stranger--and you cannot have heard how
he died."

"Pardon me, I heard from Mr. Wyvil how he died."

"You heard what I had told Mr. Wyvil," Emily said: "I was wrong."

"Wrong!" Mirabel exclaimed, in a tone of courteous surprise. "Was it not
a sudden death?"

"It _was_ a sudden death."

"Caused by disease of the heart?"

"Caused by no disease. I have been deceived about my father's death--and
I have only discovered it a few days since."

At the impending moment of the frightful shock which she was innocently
about to inflict on him, she stopped--doubtful whether it would be best
to relate how the discovery had been made, or to pass at once to the
result. Mirabel supposed that she had paused to control her agitation.
He was so immeasurably far away from the faintest suspicion of what was
coming that he exerted his ingenuity, in the hope of sparing her.

"I can anticipate the rest," he said. "Your sad loss has been caused by
some fatal accident. Let us change the subject; tell me more of that man
whom I must help you to find. It will only distress you to dwell on your
father's death."

"Distress me?" she repeated. "His death maddens me!"

"Oh, don't say that!"

"Hear me! hear me! My father died murdered, at Zeeland--and the man you
must help me to find is the wretch who killed him."

She started to her feet with a cry of terror. Mirabel dropped from his
chair senseless to the floor.

CHAPTER LIV. THE END OF THE FAINTING FIT.

Emily recovered her presence of mind. She opened the door, so as to
make a draught of air in the room, and called for water. Returning to
Mirabel, she loosened his cravat. Mrs. Ellmother came in, just in
time to prevent her from committing a common error in the treatment of
fainting persons, by raising Mirabel's head. The current of air, and the
sprinkling of water over his face, soon produced their customary effect.
"He'll come round, directly," Mrs. Ellmother remarked. "Your aunt was
sometimes taken with these swoons, miss; and I know something about
them. He looks a poor weak creature, in spite of his big beard. Has
anything frightened him?"

Emily little knew how correctly that chance g