He hesitated.

“I shall positively die with curiosity!”

“If there be any danger of that,” said he,—and he put his forefinger and thumb in his vest-pocket and looked at her and smiled.

“Well?”

“Will you promise not to think me so very, very foolish?” said he, mimicking her tones of a little while before. And he drew an object from his pocket and held it up.

“What is it,—a book?”

“Yes, a book;” removing from a much-worn morocco case a small volume.

“Oh, yes, your Testament!”

Mary had not forgotten what I had told of a certain incident that had occurred in the Don’s rooms in Richmond, and had heedlessly alluded to it.

“My Testament!” said he, with a quick, suspicious look.