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"And I answer again, that I have made no statement against her ladyship."

"What! Have you not declared, and are you not prepared to swear, that she is an adulteress?"

"No," replied Thompson, "certainly not. I don't believe that she is: I never said that I believed it."

"Why, how is this?" demanded the general of Sir Charles. "What am I to understand?"

"Pursue your own course, General Lloyd," returned Sir Charles. "Pray proceed in your own way. I've no wish to interfere with your mode of interrogation."

"All I have stated," resumed Thompson, "is this: that about three this morning, I saw Mr. Sound coming slowly from the ante-room which leads to Lady Julian's chamber, and that I let him out of the house."

"And are you prepared to swear to this statement?"

"I am, sir: I am."

"And will you also swear that you received no orders—no instructions from Sir Charles—"

"General Lloyd!" vehemently interposed Sir Charles, "I'll no longer sit here to be thus insulted. Thompson, leave the room. If," he added, when Thompson had left, "if you have any charge to bring against me, let it be brought at once plainly, that I may meet it. You have insinuated against me one of the basest and most abhorrent practices by which it is possible for a man to be disgraced. Do you mean to accuse me distinctly of such baseness?"

"I mean to accuse you of this, Sir Charles Julian—I am not a man to mince my words, or to shrink from the avowal of that which I feel—this it is of which I accuse you: I accuse you of having heartlessly conspired with that despicable wretch—whose oath I perceive is entirely at your command—to crush a woman, a fond, devoted fool of a woman, whom you know to be as virtuous and as pure as a child."

"General Lloyd!" cried Sir Charles; "General Lloyd! you amaze me! Were any other man upon earth to charge me with anything so infamous, I should at once denounce him as a villain! What right have you to insult me with so monstrous an accusation? What grounds have you—what real grounds—for believing me capable of acting so shameful a part?"

"Sir Charles Julian, you amaze me! Were any other man upon earth to charge her with anything so infamous, I should at once denounce him as a villain! What right have you to insult her with so monstrous an accusation? What grounds have you—what real grounds for believing her capable of acting so shameful a part?"

"I have evidence!"

"You have: and I have evidence, too: evidence of a much purer caste. I have her evidence—upon which I'd stake my life—I have the evidence of him who is charged with her; I have my own evidence, and I have yours—for I defy you to show that, since you unhappily married her, there has been anything in her conduct to justify suspicion!"