'Well!' said Louis, coolly, without altering a muscle of his face, as
the Captain looked for an angry negative.

'And when they got home,--so the story went,--Mr. Frost, the tutor,
was so mad with jealousy and rage, that my Lady declared those
moorings would not suit her no longer, but had let go, and laid her
head right for Beauchastel.'

'Pray what was the young lady supposed to think of the matter?'

'Stories appeared to vary. One version said that Mr. Delaford had
found him on his knees to her; and that my Lady had snatched her
cruelly away, because she would not have her married before her own
daughters, and looked over all the post, for fear there should be a
letter for her. Another declared that Miss Conway would not have him
at any price, and was set upon the poor tutor, and that he was lying
dangerously ill of a low fever. --The women will have it so,'
observed the Captain, 'the story's everywhere, except maybe in the
parlour at Beauchastel, and I wouldn't wonder if Mrs. Mansell knew it
all herself, for her maid has a tongue a yard long. I won't say but
I thought there might be some grain of truth at the bottom--'

'And you shall hear it by-and-by, when I know what it is myself.'

'I'd not say I would have believed it the more if that fine gentleman
had taken his oath of it--a fellow that ain't to be trusted,'
observed the Captain.

This might have led to a revelation, if Louis had had time to attend
to it; but he had pity on James's impatient misery, and proceeded to