THE BETROTHAL OF LYSBETH On the following morning when Montalvo entered his private room after breakfast, he found a lady awaiting him, in whom, notwithstanding the long cloak and veil she wore, he had little difficulty in recognising Black Meg.

In fact Black Meg had been waiting some while, and being a person of industrious habits she had not neglected to use her time to the best advantage.
The reader may remember that when Meg visited the gallant Captain Montalvo upon a previous occasion, she had taken the liberty of helping herself to certain papers which she found lying just inside an unlocked desk.

These papers on examination, as she feared might be the case, for the most part proved to be quite unimportant--unpaid accounts, military reports, a billet or two from ladies, and so forth.

But in thinking the matter over Black Meg remembered that this desk had another part to it, which seemed to be locked, and, therefore, just in case they should prove useful, she took with her a few skeleton keys and one or two little instruments of steel and attended the pleasure of her noble patron at an hour when she believed that he would be at breakfast in another room.

Things went well; he was at breakfast and she was left alone in the chamber with the desk.