'

'I believe in him implicitly. I believe in him with all the strength
I've got.'

'Then surely it can make no difference if you ask him. There can be no
reason for him not to trust you.'

'Oh, why don't you leave me alone?' she wailed.

'I do think it's very unreasonable, Lucy,' said Lady Kelsey. 'He knows
you're his friend. He can surely count on your discretion.'

'If he refused to answer me it would mean nothing. You don't know him as
I do. He's a man of extraordinary character. If he has made up his mind
that for certain reasons which we don't know, he must preserve an entire
silence, nothing whatever will move him. Why should he answer? I believe
in him absolutely. I think he's the greatest and most honourable man
I've ever known. I should feel happy and grateful to be allowed to wait
on him.'

'Lucy, what _do_ you mean?' cried Lady Kelsey.

But now Lucy had cast off all reserve. She did not mind what she said.

'I mean that I care more for his little finger than for the whole world.
I love him with all my heart. And that's why he can't be guilty of this
horrible thing, because I've loved him for years, and he's known it. And
he loves me, and he's loved me always.'

She sank exhausted into a chair, gasping for breath. Boulger looked at
her for a moment, and he turned sick with anguish. What he had only
suspected before, he knew now from her own lips; and it was harder than
ever to bear. Now everything seemed ended.

'Are you going to marry him?' he asked.

'Yes.'

'In spite of everything?'

'In spite of everything,' she answered defiantly.

Bobbie choked down the groan of despairing rage that forced its way to
his throat. He watched her for a moment.

'Good God,' he said at last, 'what is there in the man that he should
have made you forget love and honour and common decency!'

Lucy made no reply. But she buried her face in her hands and wept. She
rocked to and fro with the violence of her tears.

Without another word Bobbie turned round and left them. Lady Kelsey
heard the door slam as he went out into the silent street.

XVII

Next day Alec was called up to Lancashire.

When he went out in the morning, he saw on the placards of the evening
papers that there had been a colliery explosion, but, his mind absorbed
in other things, he paid no attention to it; and it was with a shock
that, on opening a telegram which waited for him at his club, he found
that the accident had occurred