s. The announcement which the woman had made
staggered him.

Felix Krail had come to him in Paris, and after some hesitation, and
with some reluctance, had described how he had followed the girl along
the Nene bank and thrown her into the deepest part of the river, knowing
that she would be hampered by her skirts and that she could not swim.
"She will not trouble us further. Never fear!" he had said. "It will be
thought a case of suicide through love. Her mental depression is the
common talk of the neighbourhood."

And yet the girl was safe and now home again at Glencardine! He
reflected upon the ugly facts of "the other affair" to which her
ladyship sometimes referred, and his face went ashen pale.

Just at the moment when success had come to them after all their
ingenuity and all their endeavours--just at a moment when they could
demand and obtain what terms they liked from Sir Henry to preserve the
secret of the financial combine--came this catastrophe.

"Felix was a fool to have left his work only half-done," he remarked
aloud, as though speaking to himself.

"What work?" asked the hollow-eyed woman eagerly. But he did not satisfy
her. To explain would only increase her alarm and render her even more
desperate than she was.

"Did I not tell you often that, from her, we had all to fear?" cried the
woman frantically. "But you would not listen. And now I am--I'm face to
face with the inevitable. Disaster is before me. No power can avert it.
The girl will have a bitter and terrible revenge."

"No," he cried quickly, with fierce determination. "No, I'll save you,
Winnie. The girl shall not speak. I'll go up to Glencardine to-night and
face it out. You will come with me."

"I!" gasped the shrinking woman. "Ah, no. I--I couldn't. I dare not face
him. You know too well I dare not!"

CHAPTER XXXV

DISCLOSES A SECRET

The grey mists were still hanging upon the hills of Glencardine,
although it was already midday, for it had rained all night, and
everywhere was damp and chilly.

Gabrielle, in her short tweed skirt, golf-cape, and motor-cap, had
strolled, with Walter Murie at her side, from the house along the
winding path to the old castle. From the contented expression upon her
pale, refined countenance, it was plain that happiness, to a great
extent, had been restored to her.

When he had gone to Woodnewton it was to fetch her back to Glencardine.
He had asked for an explanation, it was true; but when sh