Standing close, I looked where he pointed. The marks were plain. I went to my seat and sat down.
"And you found them in your trunk! Anne, who is your enemy in the house?"
"I did not know I had one, sir. So far as I am aware I have not given offence to any within it. I must quit it now."
"Oh, indeed! What else would you like to do?"
I could no longer keep my tears back; it was of no use trying, and they ran over my checks. "It seems to me, Mr. Chandos, that I am no longer safe in it."
"You are perfectly safe, Anne, for you possess in it a powerful protector. One who will not suffer harm to reach you; who will be a shield to you in every assault; who will guard annoyance from you so far as shall be practicable."
I knew that he alluded to himself, and thanked him in my heart. But—so far as was practicable! There it lay. If I really had a hidden enemy, who might shield me? Mr. Edwin Barley it could not be; and I fell back to the suspecting of Lizzy Dene.
Mr. Chandos began telling off the inmates on his fingers.
"There's my mother, Mrs. Chandos, myself, Hill, Hickens; for all these I can answer. Then come the servants. For some of them I can equally answer, Lizzy Dene being one; but I regard them all as honest and trustworthy."
"Therefore the uncertain ones are only Mrs. Penn and myself."