pginternal" href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@34662@[email protected]#CHAPTER_L" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">300

LI. — A Warning 305
LII. — Mine Enemy 310
LIII. — One more Chance 318
LIV. — Dangerous Ground 327
LV. — Mr. Carmel takes his leave 332
LVI. — "Love took up the Glass of Time." 338
LVII. — An Awkward Proposal 342
LVIII. — Danger 347
LIX. — An Intruder 351
LX. — Sir Harry's Key 355
LXI. — A Discovery 358
LXII. — Sir Harry withdraws 363
LXIII. — At the Three Nuns 369
LXIV. — The Will 374
LXV. — The Serpent's Smile 380
LXVI. — Laura Grey 384
LXVII. — A Chapter of Explanations 388
LXVIII. — The Last of the Rokestones 394
LXIX. — Search for the Will 398
LXX. — A Disappointment 403
LXXI. — A Woman's Heart 408

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WILLING TO DIE.

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TO THE READER.

irst, I must tell you how I intend to relate my story. Having never before undertaken to write a long narrative, I have considered and laid down a few rules which I shall observe. Some of these are unquestionably good; others, I daresay, offend against the canons of composition; but I adopt them, because they will enable me to tell my story better than, with my imperfect experience, better rules possibly would. In the first place, I shall represent the people with whom I had to deal quite fairly. I have met some bad people, some indifferent, and some who at this distance of time seem to me like angels in the unchanging light of heaven.

My narrative shall be arranged in the order of the events; I shall not recapitulate or anticipate.

What I have learned from others, and did not witness, that which I narrate, in part, from the hints of living witnesses, and, in part, conjecturally, I shall record in the historic third