hat she put
resolutely behind her. "God was just," she muttered to herself again
and again, and He would not see her cheated of her vengeance. From
behind her thick veil she looked at Douglas. He was pale and serious,
but there was no look of fear in his face. Then he had always been
brave. She remembered that from the old days. He would walk to the
scaffold like that. She shuddered, yet without any thought of
relenting. On the way he met acquaintances and greeted them. Crossing
the Strand he held out his hand to steer her clear of a passing vehicle,
but she shrank away with a little gesture of indignation. When at last
they reached the street where his rooms were, and stopped in front of
the tall, grimy building she addressed him for the first time.

"What place is this? What are you bringing me here for?"

"This is where I live," he answered. "There is something in my rooms
which I must show you."

She stood still, moody and inclined to be suspicious.

"Why should I trust you? We are enemies, you and I. There may be evil
inside this house for me."

He threw open the door.

"You are quite safe," he said curtly, "and you know it. It is for your
good, not mine, that I have brought you here."

She entered and followed him upstairs. A vague sense of coming trouble
was upon her. She started when Douglas ushered her into a dimly-lighted
room, with a bed in one corner. A hospital nurse rose to meet them, and
looked reproachfully at Douglas. A man was leaning back amongst the
pillows, wild-eyed, and with flaring colour in his cheeks. When he saw
Joan he called out to her.

"You've come, then," he cried. "You know, Joan, I never meant to do it;
upon my soul, I didn't."

The nurse bent over him, but he thrust her aside.

"My sister!" he shouted. "My sister! I must talk with her. Listen,
Joan. I struck only one blow. It was an accident. I shall swear that
it was an accident. I had the money safe--I was ready to go. He was
mad to interfere with me, for I was desperate. It was only one blow--I
wanted to free myself, and down he went like a log. A hard man, too,
and a powerful, but he went down like a log. I didn't want his life. I
wanted money, for I was in rags and she wouldn't look at me. 'Come to
me properly clothed,' she said. I, who had ruined myself for her.
Joan, hist! Come here."

They were under the spell of his terrible excitement. The nurse fell
back, Joan took her place at his pillow. He gripped her arm wi