"
"To whom, you or me?"
"To both, perhaps, certainly to you. She was disappointed once when she
lost us both by wavering between your title and my supposed fortune. She
is miserable with the old man, and her only hope is in his death, for he
is very feeble. You are free, and doubly attractive now, so beware, or
she will entangle you before you know it."
"Thanks, Mentor. I've no fear, and shall merely amuse myself for a
week--they stay no longer." And with a careless laugh, Sir Jasper
strolled away.
"Much mischief may be done in a week, and this is the beginning of it,"
muttered Treherne, as he raised himself to look under the bronze vase
for the note. It was gone!
Chapter III
WHO WAS IT?
Who had taken it? This question tormented Treherne all that sleepless
night. He suspected three persons, for only these had approached the
fire after the note was hidden. He had kept his eye on it, he thought,
till the stir of breaking up. In that moment it must have been removed
by the major, Frank Annon, or my lady; Sir Jasper was out of the
question, for he never touched an ornament in the drawing room since he
had awkwardly demolished a whole _etagere_ of costly trifles, to
his mother's and sister's great grief.
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