Whilst she was pursuing these reflections in the hall, Rhoda came up
from the servants' tea-table in the kitchen. Her mistress gave her the
necessary instructions for packing, and promised to help her before
long. Mrs. Vimpany's audacious resolution to dispute the evidence of
her own senses, still dwelt on Miss Henley's mind. Too angry to think
of the embarrassment which an interview with Lord Harry would produce,
after they had said their farewell words in Ireland. she was determined
to prevent the doctor's wife from speaking to him first, and claiming
him as an accomplice in her impudent denial of the truth. If he had
been, by any chance, deluded into leaving the house, he would sooner or
later discover the trick that had been played on him, and would
certainly return. Iris took a chair in the hall.

* * * * * * *

It is due to the doctor to relate that he had indeed justified his
wife's confidence in him.

The diamond pin, undergoing valuation in London, still represented a
present terror in his mind. The money, the money--he was the most
attentive husband in England when he thought of the money! At the time
when Lord Harry's carriage stopped at his house-door, he was in the
dining-room, taking a bottle of brandy from the cellaret in the
sideboard. Looking instantly out of the window, he discovered who the
visitor was, and decided on consulting his instructions in the
pocket-diary. The attempt was rendered useless, as soon as he had
opened the book, by the unlucky activity of the servant in answering
the door. Her master stopped her in the hall. He was pleasantly
conscious of the recovery of his cunning. But his memory (far from