."
Supposing that she brought a suit against him where would he be? She
must have evidence, or she would not have known the story. The whole
drama had clearly been witnessed by someone, probably either by
Elizabeth or the servant girl, and that some one had betrayed it to
Honoria and possibly to others. The thought made him sick. He was a
man of the world, and a practical lawyer, and though, indeed, they were
innocent, he knew that under the circumstances few would be found to
believe it. At the very best there must be a terrible and shocking
scandal, and Beatrice would lose her good name. He placed himself in the
position of counsel for the petitioner in a like case, and thought how
he would crush and crumple such a defence in his address to the jury. A
probable tale forsooth!

Undoubtedly, too, Honoria would be acting wisely from her point of view.
Public sympathy would be with her throughout. He knew that, as it was,
he was believed generally to owe much of his success to his handsome and
high-born wife. Now it would be said that he had used her as a ladder
and then thrown her over. With all this, however, he might cope; he
could even bear with the vulgar attacks of a vulgar press, and the gibes
and jeers of his political and personal enemies, but to lose Effie
he could not bear. And if such a case were brought against him it was
almost certain that he would lose her, for, if he was worsted, custody
of the child would be given to the injured wife.

Then there was Beatrice to be considered. The same malicious tongue that
had revealed this matter to Honoria would probably reveal it to the rest
of the world, and even if he escaped the worst penalties of outraged
morality, they would certainly be wreaked upon her. Beatrice's
reputation would be blasted, her employment lost, and her life made a
burden to her. Yes, decidedly, Honoria had the best of the position;
decidedly, also, she spoke words of weight and common sense.

What was to be done? Was there no way out of it? All that night as
Geoffrey sat in the House, his arms folded on his breast, and to
appearance intently listening to the long harangues of the Opposition,
this question haunted him. He argued the situation out this way and that
way, till at the last he came to a conclusion. Either he must wait for
the scandal to leak out, let Beatrice be ruined, and direct his efforts
to the softening of Honoria, and generally to self-preservation, or he
must take the b