Jean Mubddcjc>

When Claudia had finished reading this letter, she passed ife with a sad smile to Lady Hursbmonceux, who, as soon as she had in her turn perused it, tossed it upon the table, saying, scornfully : • "Whom the gede-wigb to destroy they first make mad !" Lord Vincent appears to me to have lost his reason ! He thinks thab he is weaving a net of circumstantial evidence arouod you for your ruin, when he is, in fact, only involving himself in jm tricapies of crime which must inevitably prove his destruction.' *1 cannot, oh, I cannot see it in the same light thab you do.! It seems to me that he has succeeded in making me ap pear guilty,' said Claudia, with a shudder. ' Ah, leb us nob talk of it, since talk in" will do no gopd, at leasb nob now. When your father'comes, then we wiU talk and act,' said the countess, soothingly, as she set a cup of fraganb coffee before her guest. Now* I do not know whether you care to be informed hoyr Claudia passed her time during the five weeks of her sojourn at Cameron Court, so I shall make the descrip tion of her visit a short one.
