I do not, for instance, admit that the object--the object itself--of my search was such as has been represented." "What then?
What else ?" growled Rotherby.
"Ay, sir--what else ?" quoth Mr.Templeton.
"Sir," said Mr.Caryll, with a sorrowful shake of, the head, "I have already startled you, it seems, by one statement.

I beg that you will prepare yourself to be startled by another." Then he abruptly dropped his languor.

"I should think twice, sir," he advised, "before signing that warrant, were I in your place, to do so would be to render yourself the tool of those who are plotting my ruin, and ready to bear false witness that they may accomplish it.

I refer," and he waved a hand towards the countess and his brother, "to the late Lord Ostermore's mistress and his natural son, there." In their utter stupefaction at the unexpectedness and seeming wildness of the statement, neither mother nor son could find a word to say.

No more could Mr.Templeton for a moment.