“I ran immediately to the door leading to the dressing-room, where I heard my lady searching. Master had shut it. He opened it for me by the key which he held in his hand, and locked it as I passed out. It seemed he wanted no interview till the book should be got. Amelia was there, searching and searching, trembling and sighing.
“‘What means this?’ she ejaculated, as she proceeded—then paused. ‘I must have placed it in the trunk, from whence I took it;’ and she rushed away to the room where the trunks lay, which she had brought with her to Redcleugh.
“’Twas all in vain. That book could not be got, sir. That book was never found. No copy of it could be procured. The loss of that book was the ruin of the house of Redcleugh.”
“There it is,” said I, holding up the tattered brochure to the wondering eyes of the old butler.
“Gracious Heaven!” cried the old man. “Yet not gracious—too late, too late!” and he staggered, like one who is drunk. “Mr. Bernard is dead.”
“And Amelia is mad,” said I, sorrowfully.
“Yes, mad,” said he, as he still gazed on the brochure, and turned it over and over with trembling hands.
“But how did you come to get this,” he inquired.
I told him, and he rose and hastened to the escritoire to examine it, and satisfy himself of the truth of my statement.
“When that book could not be found, sir,” he resumed when he came back, “my master put his resolution into effect. He placed his children with Mr. Gordon, one of his trustees, executed a settlement, and went to the East. My lady Amelia never saw him from that morning, but he left word with me, that if the pamphlet was found in the house, he should be made acquainted with it through his trustee, Mr. Gordon. But, ah! sir, that never happened, in God’s mysterious providence; and now my poor Lady Amelia could receive no advantage from this proof of her innocence. I have heard from her own lips, before her reason gave way, that she was the grand-daughter of Jane Grierson and Mr. Temple, and that was the reason why she came to have this little book. The story haunted her, yet she read it; while, at the same time, she concealed her possession of it, and her connection with the parties.”