“It was not only myself who arranged it.  Remember, it was you who suggested it, because it seemed so easy, and because you had an old score to pay off.”

“The woman was sacrificed, and at the same time an enemy learnt our secret.”

“I couldn’t help it,” he protested.  “You let your woman’s vindictiveness overstep your natural caution, my dear girl.  If you’d taken my advice there would have been no suspicion.”

Lady Heyburn was silent.  She sat regarding the toe of her patent-leather shoe fixedly, in deep reflection.  She was powerless to protest, she was so entirely in this man’s hands.  “Well,” she asked at last, stirring uneasily in her chair, “and suppose we are not able to raise the money, what do you anticipate will be the result?”

“A rapid reprisal,” was his answer.  “People like them don’t hesitate—­they act.”

“Yes, I see,” she remarked in a blank voice.  “They have nothing to lose, so they will bring pressure upon us.”

“Just as we once tried to bring pressure upon them.  It’s all a matter of money.  We pay the price arranged—­a mere matter of business.”

“But how are we to get money?”

“By getting a glance at what’s in that safe,” he replied.  “Once we get to know this mysterious secret of Sir Henry’s, I and my friends can get money easily enough.  Leave it all to me.”

“But how—­”

“This matter you will please leave entirely to me, Winnie,” he repeated with determination.  “We are both in danger—­great danger; and that being so, it is incumbent upon me to act boldly and fearlessly.  I mean to get the key, and see what is within that safe.”

“But the girl?” asked her ladyship.

“Within one week from to-day the girl will no longer trouble us,” he said with an evil glance.  “I do not intend that she shall remain a barrier against our good fortune any longer.  Understand that, and remain perfectly calm, whatever may happen.”

“But you surely don’t intend—­you surely will not—­”

“I shall act as I think proper, and without any sentimental advice from you,” he declared with a mock bow, but straightening himself instantly when at the door was heard a fumbling, and the gray-bearded man in blue spectacles, his thin white hand groping before him, slowly entered the room.

CHAPTER XIV

CONCERNS THE CURSE OF THE CARDINAL

Gabrielle and Walter were seated together under one of the big oaks at the edge of the tennis-lawn at Connachan.  With May Spencer and Lady Murie they had been playing; but his mother and the young girl had gone into the house for tea, leaving the lovers alone.

“What’s the matter with you to-day, darling?” he had asked as soon as they were out of hearing.  “You don’t seem yourself, somehow.”

She started quickly, and, pulling herself up, tried to smile, assuring him that there was really nothing amiss.