第100章

“Blancheisgettingreadytogooutwithme。Wemeantohaveawalktogether。Ihavemanythingstosaytoher。Beforewego，I

havesomethingtosayto_you。_“

“Isitanythingveryserious？“

“Itismostserious。“

“Aboutme？“

“Aboutyou。Iknowwhereyouwentontheeveningofmylawn-partyatWindygates——youwenttoCraigFernie。“

“GoodHeavens!howdidyoufindout——？“

“Iknowwhomyouwenttomeet——MissSilvester。Iknowwhatissaidofyouandofher——youaremanandwife。“

“Hush!don’tspeaksoloud。Somebodymayhearyou!“

“Whatdoesitmatteriftheydo？Iamtheonlypersonwhomyouhavekeptoutofthesecret。Youallofyouknowithere。“

“Nothingofthesort!Blanchedoesn’tknowit。“

“What!NeitheryounorSirPatrickhastoldBlancheofthesituationyoustandinatthismoment？“

“Notyet。SirPatrickleavesittome。Ihaven’tbeenabletobringmyselftodoit。Don’tsayaword，Ientreatyou。Idon’tknowhowBlanchemayinterpretit。HerfriendisexpectedinLondonto-morrow。IwanttowaittillSirPatrickcanbringthemtogether。HerfriendwillbreakittoherbetterthanIcan。It’s_my_notion。SirPatrickthinksitagoodone。Stop!you’renotgoingawayalready？“

“ShewillbeheretolookformeifIstayanylonger。“

“Oneword!Iwanttoknow——“

“Youshallknowlaterintheday。“

Herladyshipappearedagainroundtheangleofthewall。Thenextwordsthatpassedwerewordsspokeninawhisper。

“Areyousatisfiednow，Blanche？“

“Haveyoumercyenoughleft，LadyLundie，totakemeawayfromthishouse？“

“Mydearchild!WhyelsedidIlookatthetime-tableinthehall？“

CHAPTERTHEFORTY-THIRD。

THEEXPLOSION。

ARNOLD’Smindwasfarfromeasywhenhewasleftbyhimselfagaininthesmoking-room。

AfterwastingsometimeinvainlytryingtoguessatthesourcefromwhichLadyLundiehadderivedherinformation，heputonhishat，andtookthedirectionwhichledtoBlanche’sfavoritewalkatHamFarm。Withoutabsolutelydistrustingherladyship’sdiscretion，theideahadoccurredtohimthathewoulddowelltojoinhiswifeandherstep-mother。Bymakingathirdattheinterviewbetweenthem，hemightpreventtheconversationfromassumingaperilouslyconfidentialturn。

Thesearchfortheladiesproveduseless。Theyhadnottakenthedirectioninwhichhesupposedthemtohavegone。

Hereturnedtothesmoking-room，andcomposedhimselftowaitforeventsaspatientlyashemight。Inthispassiveposition——withhisthoughtsstillrunningonLadyLundie——hismemoryrevertedtoabriefconversationbetweenSirPatrickandhimself，occasioned，onthepreviousday，byherladyship’sannouncementofherproposedvisittoHamFarm。SirPatrickhadatonceexpressedhisconvictionthathissister-in-law’sjourneysouthhadsomeacknowledgedpurposeatthebottomofit。

“Iamnotatallsure，Arnold“(hehadsaid)，“thatIhaved