"What you told me I do not understand. You say you saw it done——"
"Then I did not see it done," she petulantly interrupted; and no more questions would she answer.
"Let me take you back to the fire," said Mr. Ravensworth, as he shut down the window. "You are trembling with cold."
"Not with cold," was her reply.
Stirring the fire into a blaze, he drew the easy-chair near it for her. He then stood by, saying nothing.
"Suppose they should openly accuse me?" she began, after a silence. "Would they arrest me?"
"Blanche," he retorted, in sharp, ringing, imperative accents, "are you guilty? Tell me, one way or the other, that I may know what to be at."
Lady Level rose and confronted him, her blue eyes wearing their most haughty expression. "You have known me for many years, known me well; how then can you repeat that question? I guilty of attacking Lord Level!"
"I would rather believe myself—I could as soon believe my own wife guilty of such a thing; but why have you equivocated with me? You have not told me the truth, as to what passed that night."
"My husband charged me not to tell anyone."