el said absolutely nothing. She looked at him with dilated eyes,
incredulous amazement and then horror in her face, as she saw in his
that he was telling her the truth.

"My father?" she said at last, with trembling lips.

"Yes," Pateley said. The worst was over now, he felt, and he had
recovered possession of himself.

"No, no, it can't be!" she said miserably. "It's not possible...."

"I fear it is," said Pateley. "They were shown to myself, you see, so it
is an absolute certainty."

"But when was it?" said Rachel, bewildered. "When did he have them?"

"They were left," Pateley said, "in the study where he was, when your
husband went down to speak to Lord Stamfordham. During that time I
happened to go in."

And as Rachel listened to his brief account of what had taken place she
knew that there was no longer any doubt as to the culprit. For the
moment, as the idol of her life fell before her in ruins the discovery
she had made swallowed up everything else. Pateley made a move.

"Wait, wait!" she said. "Don't go away. Only wait till I see what I must
do. It is all so horrible! I see nothing clearly yet."

He walked away to the other end of the little garden.

She leant back in her chair, her eyes fixed, seeing nothing, trying to
make up her mind. Gradually what she must do became more and more
distinct to her, more and more inevitable. The sheer force of her
agitation and emotion were carrying her own. If she acted at once,
within the next half-hour, anything, everything might be possible. She
would not wait to think, she would do it now, while it was still
possible to pronounce the name, the dear name that she had hardly been
able to bring to her lips during these last weeks in which every day,
every hour, she had been conscious of her loss. She would go to the
person who must be told, and who alone could remedy the great evil that
had been done. She got up, a despairing determination in her face.

Pateley looked at her, his face asking the question which he did not put
in words.

"I am going to Lord Stamfordham," she said. "I am going to tell him."

"You?" said Pateley. "Are you going to tell him yourself?"

"Yes," she said, "it is I who must tell him. I have quite made up my
mind." She turned to him appealingly as though taking for granted he
would help her. "I want to go now, while I feel I can, and before Frank
knows anything about it. Can you help me--would you help me to find Lord
Stamfordham?"