that plot, I will have the truth-the whole truth from your lips, before I stir from this spot."

"Oh, sir," exclaimed Rebekah, "her fever runs high, in mercy do not question her now.

ber what injuries she has sustained."

Remem

“Ay, and I am not likely to forget what injuries others have sustained," said Sir Digby.

HERE was excitement, almost amounting to perturbation, in the servants' hall on the following morning. The baronet, though he had not left his study till past midnight, had, contrary to his usual custom, risen at an early hour, and sent for his steward Holdich. At the same time he had given orders that his carriage should instantly be made ready to go to Axe; and while the wondering coachman, roused from sleep, was making his hasty preparations, Sir Digby wrote notes to Mr. Eardley and the magistrate Mr. Grange, which the man was to deliver, and then bring both gentlemen with all speed to Castle Lestrange.

"I'd have given my right hand to have broken them seals, and to have known what was in them letters," said Valance, whose usually rubicund face wore an almost cadaverous hue. I never saw Sir Digby look as he did when he gave them, there was something terribly keen and stern in the glance of his eye, he seemed to read one through and through.

"Old Grange, the magistrate, what can he be

sent for?" said Ford; "I don't like the look of the thing."

'I daresay that the two are coming for nothing but to consult with Sir Digby about the Walhalla;' suggested one of the servants. "I carried in a note just now from that luckless fellow, little Slimes. He slunk off like a beaten cur when the building fell, and has been hiding himself in Axe, ashamed I suppose to show his face. to show his face. Now he's wanting his boxes, or something of the sort, and Sir Digby, instead of answering his note, bade me tell Mullins to call for him too, and bring him back here directly. Sir Digby, when he has once taken a notion into his head, is not the man to let it go; take my word for it, we'll have the Walhalla up again, knight-horse -and all the rest of it, before the summer is over."

The frown on Ford's brow did not pass away, though Valance was ready to catch at the suggestion held out for his relief. "I guess that it's rather a question of pulling down than of building up," the gardener muttered.

"Ha!" exclaimed Valance, looking through the window, "I'll be hanged if there is not that fellow Holdich coming here again, and that lad of his at his heels. There must be mischief brewing, or that young thief would not venture to come near the Castle. Do you think," the butler lowered his tone, and glanced uneasily at Ford as he spoke, “do you

think that any one can have dared to peach, that any rumour can have got wind ?"

The carriage which had been sent to Axe was not very long in returning. The faces of those within it were eagerly scanned by the expectant servants, in the hope of reading there some solution of the perplexing question of why they had been summoned at so unusual an hour. Mr. Grange, a short grave baldheaded man, stepped first from the carriage; no information could be gained from his quiet impassive demeanour. Mr. Eardley then sprang out, and with a light step went up to the entrance of the Castle; his expression was hopeful and bright, and from this an evil augury was drawn. The face of Slimes exhibited conflicting emotions. His sallow countenance appeared even more sickly than usual, his black hair more lank and untrimmed. He had averted his face, almost with a shudder, from the mount of the Walhalla, when passing within sight of the ruins, and the pang of mortified pride had left its trace on his features when he alighted from the carriage. Nevertheless the hopes of the architect were rising again; easily cast down, but not easily kept down, inflated vanity rendered them buoyant. The fact of being summoned back to the castle excited pleasant expectations. Slimes' fertile brain was already busily engaged in devising arguments to prove that the fall of the Walhalla was owing to a complexity of causes, none of them in the least connected with miscalcula

tion or want of foresight on the part of its gifted projector.

Mr. Slimes was given no time, however, to deliver the long explanatory speech which he had been composing during the drive, and which he had intended to spice with more than the usual amount of flattery. No sooner had Valance announced the three gentlemen in the grand saloon where Sir Digby was waiting with his daughter, than he received commands to summon all the servants, including Ford the gardener, into the presence of their master. The bloated face of the butler looked livid with fear, as he carried the portentous order to the rest of the household, who received it with more consternation than surprise.

"We'd one crash yesterday, there'll be another to-day!" exclaimed Bateman, who had been standing over the fire in deep confabulation with Ford. “I knew there was something a coming when I saw Missie Edith this morning. I never knew a being so changed. Talk of shock to her nerves, stuff and The child's brimming over with joy, but 1 can't get anything out of her; she puts her finger on her lips, and says, 'Papa bade me not tell.""

nonsense!

There appeared to be some difficulty in collecting the servants together, or there was some reluctance on their part to appearing before their master; for it was not until a loud authoritative ringing of his bell showed that he was growing impatient, that the