had betrayed the great secret
entrusted to me."

"Frank!" she cried. "But of course you didn't!"

"Of course I didn't," Rendel said quietly.

"And--then----?" said Rachel breathlessly.

"Then," Rendel said, shrinking at the very recollection, "Stamfordham
told me he believed I had done it. Then of course,"--and the words came
with an effort--"there was an end of everything, and I knew that there
was nothing left for me to do but to go under, to throw everything up. I
knew that people would turn their backs upon me, and I didn't see
Stamfordham again until--until to-day. And to-day Wentworth and I went
up to that place in the woods to lunch, and by chance, by the most
horrible, evil fortune, we came upon a luncheon party at which
Stamfordham was, and--and," he said trying to speak calmly, "when he saw
me he refused to sit down at the same table with me." And as he spoke
Rachel felt that things were becoming clear to her and that she was
beginning to understand. The comments of the people who had stood by her
and discussed the scene they had witnessed still rang in her ears, and
she realised what the horror of that scene must have been.

"Frank!" she cried, with her tears falling. And she went to him and took
his hand, then drew his head against her bosom as though to give him
sanctuary. "Imagine believing that you, _you_ of all people..." and the
broken words of comfort and faith in him, of love and belief again gave
him a moment of feeling that rehabilitation might be possible.

"Frank!" Rachel went on, "tell me this. Did my father know?"

"Know what?" Rendel said, starting up, the iron reality again facing
him.

"That you were accused? That they could believe that you had done such a
shameful thing?"

"Yes," said Rendel slowly. "At least he knew what had
happened--and--and--he guessed that the suspicion would fall upon me."

"Oh!" cried Rachel, hiding her face in her hands and trying to steady
her voice. "I am sorry he knew just at the end. I wonder if he
realised?"

Rendel said nothing. Even now was Sir William Gore to stand between
them?

"Perhaps he didn't," Rachel said, almost entreatingly, "as he was so
ill. Because think what it would have been to him! Of course he would
have known it was not true, but he was so fastidious, so terribly
sensitive, the mere thought that you could have been suspected of such a
thing even would have preyed upon him so terribly."

"Well," said Rendel, in a low voice-