CHAPTER XLI.
GRACE'S ALTERNATIVE.
Very shortly after that remarkable speech in the servants' hall, Jonathan found another reason for believing that Mr.Simon Jennings was equal to any imaginable amount of human wickedness.

That reason will shortly now appear; but we must first of all dig at its roots somewhat deeper than Jonathan's mental husbandry could manage.
If any trait of character were wanting to complete the desperate infamy of Jennings--( really I sometimes hope that his grandfather's madness had a kind of reawakening in this accursed man)--it was furnished by a new and shrewd scheme for feeding to the full his lust of gold.

The bailiff had more than once, as we have hinted, found means to increase his evil hoard, by having secretly gained power over female innocence and honest reputation: similarly he now devised a deep-laid plot, nothing short of diabolical.

His plot was this: and I choose to hurry over such foul treason.

Let a touch or two hint its outlines: those who will, may paint up the picture for themselves.