over, that there were rumours in the City of a startling kind,
relative to the character of the Company itself. The name of the
secretary was Mr. Robert Delancey, but that was now believed to be a
mere _alias_. The police were actively at work.

'It'll be the ruin of me!' Mutimer gasped. 'I can never prove that I
knew nothing. You see, nothing's said about Hilary. It's that fellow
Delancey who has run.'

'You must find Mr. Hilary,' said Adela urgently. 'Where does he live?'

'I have no idea. I only had the office address. Perhaps it isn't even
his real name. It'll be my ruin.'

Adela was astonished to see him so broken down. He let himself sink upon
a chair; his head and hands fell.

'But I can't understand why you should despair so!' she exclaimed.
'You will speak to the meeting to-night. If the money is lost you will
restore it. If you have been imprudent, that is no crime.'

'It is--it is--when I had money of that kind entrusted to me! They won't
hear me. They have condemned me already. What use is it to talk to them?
They'll say everything comes to smash in my hands.'

She spoke to him with such words of strengthening as one of his comrades
might have used. She did not feel the tenderness of a wife, and had no
power to assume it. But her voice was brave and true. She had made his
interest, his reputation, her own. By degrees he recovered from the
blow, and let her words give him heart.

'You're right,' he said, 'I'm behaving like a fool; I couldn't go on
different if I was really guilty. Who wrote that letter? I never saw the
letter before, as far as I know. I wanted to keep it, but they wouldn't
let me--trust them! What black guards they are I They're jealous of
me. They know they can't speak like I do, that they haven't the same
influence I have. So they're ready to believe the first lie that's
brought against me. Let them look to themselves to-night! I'll give them
a piece of my mind--see if I don't! What's to-day? Friday. On Sunday
I'll have the biggest meeting ever gathered in the East End. If they
shout out against me, I'll tell them to their faces that they're
mean-spirited curs. They haven't the courage to rise and get by force
what they'll never have by asking for it, and when a man does his best
to help them they throw mud at him!'

'But they won't do so,' Adela urged. 'Don't be unjust. Wait and see.
They will shout _for_, not _against_ you.'

'Why didn't you keep 'Arry here?' he asked suddenly.