about the Parliamentary business, and had not seemed to be grateful
when, in a mingled spirit of generosity and vanity, she, the wife to
whom he had sworn fidelity, had placed four thousand pounds to his
credit in the bank.

Here was the reason.

"Stop!" she cried mentally. "I will not be rash."

She looked at the telegram again, read it, and then noted that the
postmark was Tilborough; and she turned it over to examine the envelope,
which she had dropped--she did not recall in her half-crazy state when
or where.

But it was enough--the boy had given it to her, and it could be for no
one else.

"Oh, Hilton, Hilton!" she groaned. "Has it come to this? A liaison
with some low-born, base creature. Kept with my money. This is why you
have always been so short; this is why you have always been degrading
yourself by asking for more. `All found out at last. Do pray tell her
ladyship. She won't be very hard upon us!' Indeed!" she said,
half-aloud, and through her hard-set teeth. "Of course not. Oh-h-h! I
could have overlooked a relapse into his old gambling vice, but this--
this baseness! The villain--the villain!"

"Who is it?" she muttered, reading again, "La Sylphide. Some French
creature, dwelling in that nest of infamy, Tilborough. Why! Oh, great
heavens! That wretched racing woman--that widow! She must have been
coming here to see him this morning when we passed. Oh, I see it all
now. The telegram--dated yesterday--he did not join her according to
her request, and she had the daring effrontery to come after him here.
That is it. `All found out at last!' What could be all found out at
last? Oh--oh--oh!"

Lady Lisle covered her face with her hands, the coloured paper crackling
softly as it touched her temples, making her start as if it had stung
her burning skin, and dash it down upon the carpet and stamp upon it in
disgust.

But it was a proof of her husband's infidelity, she thought, and she
stooped and picked it up, wishing her fingers were the tongs, as she
smoothed it out, doubled it, and held it ready for the interview about
to take place.

"And so I am not to be very hard I am to condone everything. Well," she
added, with a bitter laugh which seemed to tear itself from her
throbbing breast, "we shall see."

She paused again, with her poor brain seeming to seethe with wildly
jealous thoughts, every one garnished with cruel suspicions, and seeming
to tell more and more against the