have been happier with Lambert in his
poverty."

"Probably! Her tastes don't lie like those of other women in the
direction of squandering money. By the way, I suppose, since you are
here, that you know Lambert is staying in the Abbot's Wood Cottage?"

"Yes, I know that. And what of it?" demanded the millionaire sharply.

"Nothing; only I thought you would like to know. I fancied you had come
here to see if--"

"I did not. I can trust you to see that my wife and Lambert do not meet
without spying myself."

"If you love and trust your wife so entirely, I wonder you ask me to spy
on her at all," said Silver with a faint sneer.

"She is a woman, and we gypsies have sufficient of the Oriental in us to
mistrust even the most honest women. Lambert has not been to The Manor?"

"No. That's a bad sign. He can't trust himself in her presence."

"I'll choke the life out of you, rat that you are, if you talk in such a
way about my wife. What you think doesn't matter. Hold your tongue, and
come to business. I asked you here to take my instructions."

Silver was rather cowed by this outburst, as he was cunning enough to
know precisely how far he could venture with safety. "I am waiting," he
observed in sullen tones.

"Garvington--as I knew he would--has ordered us off the land. As the
wood is really mine, since I hold it as security, having paid off the
mortgage, I don't choose that he should deal with it as though it were
his own. Here"--he passed along a letter--"I have written that on my
office paper, and you will see that it says, I have heard how gypsies
are camping here, and that it is my wish they should remain. Garvington
is not to order them off on any pretext whatsoever. You understand?"

"Yes." Silver nodded, and slipped the paper into his breast pocket after
a hasty glance at the contents, which were those the writer had stated.
"But if Garvington wishes to know why you take such an interest in the
gypsies, what am I to say?"

"Say nothing. Simply do what I have told you."

"Garvington may suspect that you are a Romany."

"He won't. He thinks that I'm in Paris, and will never connect me with
Ishmael Hearne. If he asks questions when we meet I can tell him my own
tale. By the way, why is he so anxious to get rid of the tribe?"

"There have been many burglaries lately in various parts of Hengishire,"
explained the secretary. "And Garvington is afraid lest the gypsies
should be mixed up with them. He thinks,