e he had thought of words in which to
answer her, she let her hands fall to her side, she closed her eyes,
and shook her head, and fell back again into her chair. "It is too
horrible to be spoken of,--or to be thought about," she said. "I
could not have brought myself to tell the tale to a living
being,--except to you."

This would naturally have been flattering to Johnny had it not been
that he was in truth absorbed by the story which he had heard.

"Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that Broughton has--committed
suicide?" She could not speak of it again, but nodded her head at him
thrice, while her eyes were still closed. "And how was the manner of
it?" said he, asking the question in a low voice. He could not even
as yet bring himself to believe it. Madalina was so fond of a little
playful intrigue, that even this story might have something in it of
the nature of fiction. He was not quite sure of the facts, and yet he
was shocked by what he had heard.

"Would you have me repeat to you all the bloody details of that
terrible scene?" she said. "It is impossible. Go to your friend
Dalrymple. He will tell you. He knows it all. He has been with Maria
all through. I wish,--I wish it had not been so." But nevertheless
she did bring herself to narrate all the details with something more
of circumstance than Eames desired. She soon succeeded in making him
understand that the tragedy of Hook Court was a reality, and that
poor Dobbs Broughton had brought his career to an untimely end.
She had heard everything,--having indeed gone to Musselboro in the
City, and having penetrated even to the sanctum of Mr. Bangles. To Mr
Bangles she had explained that she was the bosom-friend of the widow
of the unfortunate man, and that it was her miserable duty to make
herself the mistress of all the circumstances. Mr. Bangles,--the
reader may remember him, Burton and Bangles, who kept the stores for
Himalaya wines at 22s 6d the dozen, in Hook Court,--was a bachelor,
and rather liked the visit, and told Miss Demolines very freely all
he had seen. And when she suggested that it might be expedient for
the sake of the family that she should come back to Mr. Bangles for
further information at a subsequent period, he very politely assured
her that she would "do him proud", whenever she might please to call
in Hook Court. And then he saw her into Lombard Street, and put her
into an omnibus. She was therefore well qualified to tell Johnny all
the