forced the portfolio into my hand. Once more, his beautiful eyes held me
with their irresistible influence; they looked at me with an expression
of sad and solemn warning. "Discover for yourself," he said, "what devils
my deafness has set loose in me; and let no eyes but yours see that
horrid sight. You will find me here tomorrow, and you will decide by that
time whether you make an enemy of me or not."

He threw open the door, and bowed as graciously as if he had been a
sovereign dismissing a subject.

Was he mad?

I hesitated to adopt that conclusion. There is no denying it, the deaf
man had found his own strange and tortuous way to my interest, in spite
of myself. I might even have been in some danger of allowing him to make
a friend of me, if I had not been restrained by the fears for Cristel
which his language and his manner amply justified, to my mind. Although I
was far from foreseeing the catastrophe that really did happen, I felt
that I had returned to my own country at a critical time in the life of
the miller's daughter. My friendly interference might be of serious
importance to Cristel's peace of mind--perhaps even to her personal
safety as well.

Eager to discover what the contents of the portfolio might tell me, I
hurried back to Trimley Deen. My stepmother had not yet returned from the
dinner-party. As one of the results of my ten years' banishment from
home, I was obliged to ask the servant to show me the way to my own room,
in my own house! The windows looked out on a view of Fordwitch Wood. As I
opened the leaves which were to reveal to me the secret soul of the man
whom I had so strangely met, the fading moonlight vanished, and the