to Dr. Anstice that their authorship should be published and
their lies refuted."

"Yes. I had forgotten that." She turned to Anstice, who had risen and
was standing leaning against the mantelpiece, looking desperately
uncomfortable. "Forgive me, please, Dr. Anstice! For the second time I
had forgotten that you were the victim of this latest outrage of
Tochatti's----"

"Mrs. Carstairs--please!" In his haste to explain himself Anstice spoke
rather incoherently. "If you are willing to let this matter drop--why,
so am I. For your own sake I think, while you are behaving nobly, you
are making a mistake--a most generous, chivalrous mistake--in not
proving your entire innocence before all the world, but if you are
really resolved on it, do let me make you understand that personally I
am only too ready to let the whole thing slide into the oblivion it
deserves!"

"My dear fellow"--Major Carstairs spoke warmly--"this is all very well,
very Quixotic, very--well, what you call noble, chivalrous--but what
about the moral side of the affair? Justice should be tempered with
mercy, certainly; but it doesn't do to defraud justice altogether of her
dues. The woman has committed a crime--I repeat it, a crime against
society, against you, against my wife; and to let her go unpunished is
to put a premium on wickedness; and leave both you and my wife to lie
under a most undeserved, most cruel stigma."

For a moment Anstice hesitated; and before he could frame a reply Chloe
spoke very quietly, yet with a decision there was no mistaking.

"Leo, I see your point of view plainly--a good deal more plainly, I
think, than you see mine. Of course as a man you want your wife's name
cleared; and if you insist on making the affair public, why then"--said
Chloe with a little smile--"I suppose I must submit as a good wife
should. But"--she was serious now--"if you knew how I dread the
publicity of it all--the reports in the papers, the gossip, the
talk--oh, it makes me shudder even to think of it! And if you imagine me
revengeful enough to find satisfaction in the idea of Tochatti's
punishment--well, I think you must have a quite mistaken notion of me
after all!"

Major Carstairs hesitated, looking from his wife to Anstice in manifest
perplexity.

"Well, really, Chloe, I don't know what to say. Of course you and Dr.
Anstice are the people chiefly concerned; and if you are both of you
sufficiently superhuman to forego your legitimate revenge--w