This was her theory: Dorothy had expected Richard, and
contrived his admission. His presence betrayed by the mastiff, and
his departure challenged by the warder, she had flown instantly to
the alarm-bell, to screen herself in any case, and to secure the
chance, if he should be taken, of liberating him without suspicion
under cover of the credit of his capture. The theory was a bold one,
but then it accounted for all the points--amongst the rest, how he
had got the password and why he would not tell--and was indeed in
the fineness of its invention equally worthy of both the heart and
the intellect of the theorist.
Nor were mistress Fuller's resolves behind her conclusions in merit:
of all times since first she had learned to mistrust her, this night
must Dorothy be watched; and it was with a gush of exultation over
her own acuteness that she saw her follow the men who bore Richard
from the hall.
If Dorothy knew more of her own feelings than she who watched her,
she was far less confident that she understood them.
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