Then I gazed on the gaping, murderous pack, and the hoary brute that led the van; and then I leaned back in my chair, and I thought—­perhaps some latent association suggested what seemed a thing so unlikely—­of a fine print in my portfolio from Vandyke’s noble picture of Belisarius.  Idly I traced with my pencil, as I leaned back, on an envelope that lay upon the table, this little inscription.  It was mere fiddling; and, absurd as it looked, there was nothing but an honest meaning in it:—­’20,000_l_.  Date Obolum Belisario!’ My dear father had translated the little Latin inscription for me, and I had written it down as a sort of exercise of memory; and also, perhaps, as expressive of that sort of compassion which my uncle’s fall and miserable fate excited invariably in me.  So I threw this queer little memorandum upon the open leaf of the book, and again the flight, the pursuit, and the bait to stay it, engaged my eye.  And I heard a voice near the hearthstone, as I thought, say, in a stern whisper, ‘Fly the fangs of Belisarius!’

‘What’s that?’ said I, turning sharply to Mary Quince.

Mary rose from her work at the fireside, staring at me with that odd sort of frown that accompanies fear and curiosity.

‘You spoke?  Did you speak?’ I said, catching her by the arm, very much frightened myself.

‘No, Miss; no, dear!’ answered she, plainly thinking that I was a little wrong in my head.

There could be no doubt it was a trick of the imagination, and yet to this hour I could recognise that clear stern voice among a thousand, were it to speak again.

Jaded after a night of broken sleep and much agitation, I was summoned next morning to my uncle’s room.

He received me oddly, I thought.  His manner had changed, and made an uncomfortable impression upon me.  He was gentle, kind, smiling, submissive, as usual; but it seemed to me that he experienced henceforth toward me the same half-superstitous repulsion which I had always felt from him.  Dream, or voice, or vision—­which had done it?  There seemed to be an unconscious antipathy and fear.  When he thought I was not looking, his eyes were sometimes grimly fixed for a moment upon me.  When I looked at him, his eyes were upon the book before him; and when he spoke, a person not heeding what he uttered would have fancied that he was reading aloud from it.

There was nothing tangible but this shrinking from the encounter of our eyes.  I said he was kind as usual.  He was even more so.  But there was this new sign of our silently repellant natures.  Dislike it could not be.  He knew I longed to serve him.  Was it shame?  Was there not a shade of horror in it?

‘I have not slept,’ said he.  ’For me the night has passed in thought, and the fruit of it is this—­I cannot, Maud, accept your noble offer.’

‘I am very sorry,’ exclaimed I, in all honesty.

’I know it, my dear niece, and appreciate your goodness; but there are many reasons—­none of them, I trust, ignoble—­and which together render it impossible.  No.  It would be misunderstood—­my honour shall not be impugned.’