Vernons, and will make thee a good accomplice."

"Revenge," murmured Edmund, "ha! revenge is sweet. The baron shall be
punished; my machine--"

"Never mind the machine now," broke in Sir Ronald, who was by no means
anxious to listen to the well-worn rigmarole again. "You can show
that to him, and tell him all about it. I shall bring him down, for he
knows not the way."

"Well, I will yield to thee; do as you list," he replied, and the man
of science turned his back abruptly upon his friend, and vigorously
stirred the seething liquid which was beginning to boil over upon the
fire.

In a few minutes Manners appeared, but Sir Ronald Bury had brought him
purposely with so little noise that the alchemyst was not aware of his
presence, and for a long time they stood in the doorway, and watched
his movements.

He was talking to himself, as he often did. It was a habit into which
he had unconsciously fallen. He had persuaded himself to think that
the great posterity for which he laboured so hard could hear him, and
in his isolation the reflection was a great consolation to him.

"Ha, ha," he muttered, "thou hast had thy little day, Sir George
Vernon. 'King of the Peak,' indeed--thy reign is o'er. And Margaret,
proud Margaret, and the haughty Lady Maude, aha! You shall all tremble
at my name."