tell her I am very uneasy, and beg her to join me immediately."

"I think you are quite right, sir," said the maid, closing the door.

Varney then, turning round for the first time, noticed Beck, and said
roughly,--

"What do you do here? Wait below till you are sent for."

Beck pulled his forelock, and retreated back, not in the direction of the
principal staircase, but towards that used by the servants, and which his
researches into the topography of the mansion had now made known to him.
To gain these back stairs he had to pass Lucretia's room; the door stood
ajar; Varney's face was turned from him. Beck breathed hard, looked
round, then crept within, and in a moment was behind the folds of the
tapestry.

Soon the chair in which sat Madame Dalibard was drawn by Varney himself
into the room.

Shutting the door with care, and turning the key, Gabriel said, with low,
suppressed passion,--

"Well; your mind seems wandering,--speak!"

"It is strange," said Lucretia, in hollow tones, "can Nature turn
accomplice, and befriend us here?"

"Nature! did you not last night administer the--"