duced a
copy of his will, and said there were two clauses in it which my husband
had expressed a wish that I should read. It is needless to say that I
obeyed."

She still controlled her agitation--but she was now unable to conceal
it. Ernest made an attempt to spare her.

"Am I concerned in this?" he asked.

"Yes. Before I tell you why, I want to know what you would do--in a
certain case which I am unwilling even to suppose. I have heard of men,
unable to pay the demands made on them, who began business again, and
succeeded, and in course of time paid their creditors."

"And you want to know if there is any likelihood of my following their
example?" he said. "Have you also heard of men who have made that second
effort--who have failed again--and who have doubled the debts they owed
to their brethren in business who trusted them? I knew one of those men
myself. He committed suicide."

She laid her hand for a moment on his.

"I understand you," she said. "If ruin comes--"

"If ruin comes," he interposed, "a man without money and without credit
can make but one last atonement. Don't speak of it now."

She looked at him with horror.

"I didn't mean _that!_" she said.

"Shall we go back to what you read in the will?" he suggested.

"Yes--if you will give me a minute to compose myself."

VI.

IN less than the minute she had asked for, Mrs. Callender was calm
enough to go on.

"I now possess what is called a life-interest in my husband's fortune,"
she said. "The money is to be divided, at my death, among charitable
institutions; excepting a certain event--"

"Which is provided for in the will?" Ernest added, helping her to go on.

"Yes. I am to be absolute mistress of the whole of the four hundred
thousand pounds--" her voice dropped, and her eyes looked away from
him as she spoke the next words--"on this one condition, that I marry
again."

He looked at her in amazement.

"Surely I have mistaken you," he said. "You mean on this one condition,
that you do _not_ marry again?"

"No, Mr. Lismore; I mean exactly what I have said. You now know that
the recovery of your credit and your peace of mind rests entirely with
yourself."

After a moment of reflection he took her hand and raised it respectfully
to his lips. "You are a noble woman!" he said.

She made no reply. With drooping head and downcast eyes she waited for
his decision. He accepted his responsibility.

"I must not, and dare not, think of th