do no good by remaining here where everybody knows
what has happened, whereas if you go away you will be able to put all
the worry of it away from you."

"I will not go."

She spoke with a fierce emphasis, the more pronounced because she felt
that the course he suggested was the one she ought to follow, and
resenting it because, by following it, she would pass out of his sight,
and perchance out of his life for all time.

"I can only advise you," he said. "The new manager may be here in a day
or two, and the bank will----"

"Oh, I'm not going to stay in this house," she interrupted. "I will be
out of here to-morrow; but I will not leave Waroona."

"You will make a mistake if you do not, I think, but it is for you to
decide."

She sat down again, clasping and unclasping her hands in her lap.

"If I go--will you--will you write to me?"

"No, I cannot do that," he answered at once.

"May I--write to you?"

"I should be sorry if you did."

She raised her eyes and again looked at him steadily in silence, looked
until he turned away.

"How hard you make it, how hard!" she said at length. "How am I to know
what is happening if I go away? I am sure you are expecting his arrest.
Why did those two troopers go off so mysteriously this afternoon? They
did not go to the railway. I watched them from upstairs. They rode the
other way."

He did not reply.

"Will you answer me this one question? Do you believe I know he is the
thief?"

"If there is anything that I can do to help or assist you in your
present difficulty, Mrs. Eustace, I shall be only too pleased to do it.
But I cannot discuss the robbery with you."

For the first time there was a tone of sternness in his voice.

"Then I take it that you do," she said. "I only want to tell you this. I
still do not believe he did it. I know he is--he is not as you are. I
have tried to shield this from you. I did not want you to know--then.
Now I have told you. I did not know he was going to run away. I did not
know he had gone until Brennan came to arrest him. But I can understand
why he went. He knew the bank would suspect him at once, knew that there
was a black record against him. It was cowardly of him, cowardly to
leave me here alone. But he has gone, and I do not think I shall ever
hear from him or see him again. That is why I want to remain here. If I
go away, I may never know; if I am here, I shall be able to find out.
But don't think that I know either that