aback. 'Oh, Dudley, surely, you must be mistaken!'
'No, my lady,' Dudley replied, in a tone of conviction. 'He comes to see her quite reg'lar; he have come to see her, off and on, from time to time, ever since I've been in Sir Charles's service.'
'When will he be coming again?' Charles asked, breathless.
'He's downstairs now, sir,' Dudley answered, unaware of the bombshell he was flinging into the midst of a respectable family.
Charles rose excitedly, and put his back against the door. 'Secure that man,' he said to me sharply, pointing with his finger.
'What man?' I asked, amazed. 'Colonel Clay? The young man who's downstairs now with Césarine?'
'No,' Charles answered, with decision; 'Dudley!'
I laid my hand on the footman's shoulder, not understanding what Charles meant. Dudley, terrified, drew back, and would have rushed from the room; but Charles, with his back against the door, prevented him.
'I—I've done nothing to be arrested, Sir Charles,' Dudley cried, in abject terror, looking appealingly at Amelia. 'It—it wasn't me as cheated you.' And he certainly didn't look it.
'I daresay not,' Charles answered. 'But you don't leave this room till Colonel Clay is in custody. No, Amelia, no; it's no use your speaking to me. What he says is true. I see it all now. This
