“Heaven forgive him!” exclaimed Diego, aside.

“And supposing it were Gillian, how would the case be mended, as far as you are concerned, Elizabeth?” said Lady Lake.  “Are you not as much injured by one as by the other?”

“It may be,” replied her daughter, “but I am jealous only of the Countess.  I would kneel to any other woman, and thank her, who would tear my husband from her embraces!”

“Weak fool!  I disown you,” exclaimed Lady Lake, angrily.

“What a wife!” cried Diego, apart.  “His lordship is quite unworthy of her.  Now I should appreciate such devotion.”

At this juncture there was a slight movement on the part of Lady Exeter, and something like a sigh escaped her.

“She revives!” whispered Lady Lake to her daughter.  “We shall soon learn the truth.  I will find a means to make her speak.  Well, my lord,” she added aloud, and speaking in a sarcastic tone, “if you will have it so, it is idle to dispute it.  But what will the Countess say, when she discovers your infidelity?”

On this a brisker movement took place on the couch, and a hand was raised as if to snatch away the ’kerchief.

“We have her,” whispered Lady Lake triumphantly to her daughter.  “Surely,” she proceeded aloud, “the Countess will deeply resent the transfer of your affections to her handmaiden.”

Lord Roos saw the peril in which he stood.  A moment more and Lady Lake had gained her point, and the Countess betrayed herself.

“Lady Exeter will place little reliance on any representations you may make, Madam,” he said, giving particular significance to his words, “except so far as they concern herself, and then she will take care to refute them.  As to the circumstance of Gillian Greenford visiting me, fainting in my arms (from excess of timidity, poor girl!) and being discovered by you and Lady Roos in that position, the Countess will laugh at it when it comes to her knowledge—­as why should she do otherwise?  But she will feel very differently when she finds that you and your daughter insist that it was she herself, and not her handmaiden, whom you beheld.  Rely on it, Madam, Lady Exeter will contradict that assertion, and disprove it.”

“Let it be disproved now.  Let the person on that couch disclose her features, and we shall then see whether she be the Countess or Gillian.”

“Ay, let her do that, my lord,—­let her speak to us,” urged Lady Roos.

“Diablo! how is this request to be complied with, I marvel?” said Diego apart.

But Lord Roos was too experienced a player to be defeated by this turn in the game.

“Gillian has already been sufficiently annoyed,” he cried; “and shall not submit to this ordeal.  Besides, she has relapsed into insensibility, as you see.”

“She does what your lordship wills her, it is clear,” said Lady Lake, contemptuously.  “We know what construction to put upon your refusal.”