She looked from the corner of her cunning eye in my face without answering.  I did not blench, and she said—­

’Vary good.  I would be vary ‘appy,’ and again she looked oddly at me.

‘Wat hour, my dear Maud?  One o’clock?  I think that weel de very well, eh?’

I assented, and she grew silent.

I wonder whether I did look as careless as I tried.  I do not know.  Through the whole of this awful period I was, I think, supernatural; and I even now look back with wonder upon my strange self-command.

Madame, I hoped, had heard nothing of the order which prohibited my exit from the place.  She would herself conduct me to Feltram, and secure, by accompanying me, my free egress.

Once in Feltram, I would assert my freedom, and manage to reach my dear cousin Knollys.  Back to Bartram no power should convey me.  My heart swelled and fluttered in the awful suspense of that hour.

Oh, Bartram-Haugh! how came you by those lofty walls?  Which of my ancestors had begirt me with an impassable barrier in this horrible strait?

Suddenly I remembered my letter to Lady Knollys.  If I were disappointed in effecting my escape through Feltram, all would depend upon it.

Having locked my door, I wrote as follows:—­

’Oh, my beloved cousin, as you hope for comfort in your hour of fear, aid me now.  Dudley has returned, and is secreted somewhere about the grounds.  It is a fraud.  They all pretend to me that he is gone away in the Seamew; and he or they had his name published as one of the passengers.  Madame de la Rougierre has appeared!  She is here, and my uncle insists on making her my close companion.  I am at my wits’ ends.  I cannot escape—­the walls are a prison; and I believe the eyes of my gaolers are always upon me.  Dogs are kept for pursuit—­yes, dogs! and the gates are locked against my escape.  God help me!  I don’t know where to look, or whom to trust.  I fear my uncle more than all.  I think I could bear this better if I knew what their plans are, even the worst.  If ever you loved or pitied me, dear cousin, I conjure you, help me in this extremity.  Take me away from this.  Oh, darling, for God’s sake take me away!

’Your distracted and terrified cousin,

MAUD’

‘Bartram-Haugh.’

I sealed this letter jealously, as if the inanimate missive would burst its cerements, and proclaim my desperate appeal through all the chambers and passages of silent Bartram.

Old Quince, greatly to cousin Monica’s amusement, persisted in furnishing me with those capacious pockets which belonged to a former generation.  I was glad of this old-world eccentricity now, and placed my guilty letter, that, amidst all my hypocrisies, spoke out with terrible frankness, deep in this receptacle, and having hid away the pen and ink, my accomplices, I opened the door, and resumed my careless looks, awaiting Madame’s return.