"You may imagine, after such an unloved life, how I love Lance."

"He is the best fellow in the world," I said, "and the woman who could
deceive him ought to be shot."

"What woman would deceive him?" she asked. "Indeed, for matter of that,
what woman could? I am his wife!"

"It happens very often," I said, trying to speak carelessly, "that good
and loyal men like Lance are the most easily deceived."

"It should not be so," she said. She was startled again, I saw it in her
face.

That same afternoon we drove into Vale Royal. Mrs. Fleming had several
poor people whom she wished to see, and some shopping to do.

"You should take your locket to a jeweler's," I said, "and have the
spring secured."

"What locket is that?" asked Lance, looking up eagerly from his paper.

"Mine," she replied--"this." She held it out for his inspection. "I
nearly lost it this morning," she said; "it fell from my neck."

"Is it the one that holds your sister's hair?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, opening it and holding it out for him to see.

What nerve she had, if this was what I imagined, the hair of the little