In the stillness produced by his call, sounded the twang of the pitch key, and then he began, 'Do-re-mi-,' when from the bungalow rang the report of a pistol.

The schoolmaster did not start the song. The children ceased to quarrel. All held their breath.

'Bless me! has anything happened?' exclaimed Mr. Physic, and elbowed his way forward.

It is nothing,' said Mrs. Curgenven, but the captain at his pranks again, just to frighten or amuse the children till he has all in readiness for them. He is full of tricks.'

The agent did not seem satisfied with the lady's explanation. He continued with haste and impatience to force his way to the door; he drove his body between the snarling mission woman and snapping Scripture reader, thrust the children aside with roughness, and only turned to beckon to his aid the churchwarden Jukes. 'Here! your burly help!'

Then a tall boy, with a blue ribbon in his buttonhole, came round the corner.

'Please! I've climbed up into the window, and looked in.' 'Well, and what have you seen?' asked Physic, almost fiercely.

'Please, sir, the captain is lying on the floor.'

'Here!' he hastily signed to Jukes, and drove his shoulders against the door. Stand off, you young hounds!' he said, and kicked the boys away. Clear from this, will you? Schoolmaster, call off your cubs.'

Then Jukes came to his aid, and drove his great muscular shoulder against the door, burst it open, and was within the bungalow next moment along with Physic, and a motley throng of school children, monitors, visitors, Scripture reader, mission woman, sidesmen, all pressing and jamming one another in the door, in their eagerness to see whatever was to be seen.

What was to be seen was Captain Curgenven's body on the floor. He had blown out his brains. The explosion had set some of the machinery in motion-a parrot was swinging on a perch, opening and shutting its beak; a little Mr. Gladstone was chopping at a tree; a mill was turning its wheel and pattering hammers on a piece of glass.

The rector was coming along leisurely, and with dignity, when the second churchwarden rushed up to him with

'Lord, sir! the captain has shot himself!'

The rector stood still for a moment, gasped, and said— "Good heavens! what will people say?'

Then from the church tower burst forth the merry peal of bells, for the men by this time had wetted the palms of their hands. The old ivied tower reeled with the vibration, and was as though it laughed and staggered in its laughter over the changes and chances of the mortal life of foolish men.

CHAPTER IV.

IN THE TRAP.

MR. PHYSIC was driving towards his home along the high road; his face was troubled, for his mind was in agitation. He had managed the Curgenven property for the captain ever since the latter had succeeded to the estate, and the captain had left it pretty much in his hands to do with it what he liked. Spasmodically, at long intervals, Lambert Curgenven had declared he would go into the accounts, overhaul the vouchers, and satisfy himself that everything was as it should be. He had not only made this declaration, he had begun to carry it out, but the captain had not a clear business head. Figures puzzled him. He had not application except for what particularly interested him. He screwed down his attention to the completion of an ingenious toy, but could never induce his mind to fix itself on the financial condition of his estate. Consequently Mr. Physic had an uncontrolled management of the revenues of the Curgenven property.

Now the captain was dead, and the agent did not know who would succeed him. If the property came to a man of business habits and of a practical bent, then it was possible that Mr. Physic's management would be brought to an abrupt termination. It was even possible that he might be called to task for certain matters connected with the management. And the danger menacing him was that mistrust of his judgment and straightforwardness might spread. It may be said that it was almost certain to spread from one squire who employed him to another, and the agency of more properties than Curgenven might be taken from him.

Mr. Physic screwed his brows together into one great knot over the root of his nose, and pursed up his lips as though endeavouring to adapt them to the utterance of a whistle.

The evening was beautiful, and the soft twilight hung over the hills like a delicate blush. But Mr. Physic had no eye for beauty, he did not even turn his eyes on the ridges that caught the glow, but they did fasten with interest on a figure walking along the road before him. He touched the cob with his whip, and shook the rein. The beast quickened his pace, and when the solicitor had reached the pedestrian, he drew up and said, 'Madam, may I offer you a lift? You are too late for the coach; she has passed the turn already, and there is not another till five minutes to this moment to-morrow evening. She leaves Liskeard at 8 A.M. in an opposite direction. I presume it is to Liskeard you want to go?' 'I am really too late?'

'Really-by five minutes. You must absolutely take my offer, or walk nine miles in the dark. I won't say that our roads are infested with banditti, for, thank the powers, we are not in Italy or Spain, or Sicily or Greece, but nine miles at night are-well -nine miles too many.'

The person addressed stood still and considered what was to be done.

'I thank you. I accept your kind offer.'

Mr. Physic extended his hand to assist the lady to mount. He studied her face with the advantage he had of being on a higher level, when she was engaged in planting her foot on the step and drawing her skirt to her from contact with the wheel.

The face was striking. It was handsome, the skin olive, delicate, and soft. The hair was so dark, that in the twilight it looked black. Probably, when the sun was on it, some colour might be found in it to redeem it from being really sable. The lady's age was undefinable. She was not a girl, but was in that debatable period which intervenes between youth and age, in which there is still roundness of feature, smoothness of skin; in which there is something superadded to the loveliness of girlhood, the lines and angles that give character to a face, a something different in kind from the simplicity of youth, a something that is also beautiful, and beautiful in a higher degree. In the girl is possibility, in the woman performance.

Suddenly, as the lady reached the seat, she turned and caught his inquiring or inquisitive eyes, and flashed them down. He hastily lashed the cob and drove on.

Then a slight pause ensued. Neither knew what to say. She, of course, desired to know who had offered her a seat by him, but

could not ask the question. He was beating about in his mind how to extract from her the information he was resolved to obtain. Presently he turned his eyes furtively towards her, and said— 'I have the honour to address Mrs. Curgenven.'

'Yes, I am Mrs. Curgenven.'

'But not Mrs. Curgenven of Curgenven?' he sniggered, as he thought how the lady who arrogated to herself that title had put him down, and how that now he had the opportunity of turning the tables on her.

The lady at his side made no reply. He continued: 'I have just come from Curgenven. I am the agent for the estate. I am the solicitor whom Captain Curgenven has always employed, and who has been in his confidence.' He laid great stress on the last words. Then, after a pause, he added, 'in all matters,' these words in what was intended as an aside.

She took no apparent notice of what he said. After another pause he went on: 'I have just come from Curgenven, as I told you. There is a queer kettle of fish stewing there.'

She still maintained her reserve and said nothing.

Α

'A queer kettle. A particularly queer kettle, thanks to your appearing.'

'No thanks to me,' said the lady shortly.

"Pon my word, that's good! Oh, dear, no!-no thanks from any one. But you had a right there, and showed that you would maintain it.'

He pressed his lips together drew the rein. He did not

Again he was met with silence. and spitefully lashed the cob, then desire to arrive at Liskeard before the ice was broken between them, and some confidence had been established.

To beat about was profitless; he rushed headforemost at the matter now.

'I know all about it-that marriage at Naples and that other affair at Malta.'

'What other affair?'

'Oh! I know.'

'I beg you will be explicit.'

'Whist! you made a clean bolt of it.'

'I left Malta. I was obliged to.'

'Oh-yes, obliged.'

She turned sharply round on him. Yes-obliged. What do you mean by that sneer?'

'Did I sneer? Oh, dear, I know nothing but what I have been told, you know. I have heard only the captain's story.' 'And what is his story?'

The agent chuckled to himself. He had unlocked her lips by attacking her.

'You may not like it. Tell me yours.'

'Not yet, I must know what he has said about me.'

Mr. Physic shook his head.

"You would perhaps kick out and swear; and you know the captain is dead?'

'Dead!'

She put her hand on the rein and arrested the horse. 'Not dead?”

"Yes-he has shot himself.'

The horse was at a stand. He could hear her pant for breath; he could feel, almost hear the bounding of her pulses at his side.

'What else could he do,' asked the agent, when the first wife turned up whom he had supposed dead?'

'Let me get out! I cannot breathe! I must be alone!' She put her left hand to the rail, and stretched her right hand to the splash-board to raise herself, but sank back on her seat again. 'You cannot get out. Nonsense, I will not allow it,' said the solicitor. 'You are not in a fit condition to be left alone.' He whipped the cob, and the gig was again rolling along.

Mr. Physic respected the agitation that had been produced by the startling announcement, and said nothing for full ten minutes. Then all at once the lady at his side drew a deep breath, and said, 'I suppose so he could do naught else. Sooner or later it must have been so,'

'He put himself in the wrong box altogether. Unless he had been sure-unless he had positive proof of your death, he ought not to have married.'

She was breathing heavily and painfully.

'If he couldn't get that, he should have sued for-but never mind that. Why, if you were to turn up, did you not turn up before?'

'I have made mistakes,' she spoke in a subdued tone; her chin was resting on her bosom, and she was looking steadily, but with a dazed eye, before her at the trotting horse.

'A good many,' said Physic.