can believe it."

"My lord," he said softly, "you have called me by many epithets, and
menaced me with many threats since I have entered this chamber; it is
not a wise thing to do with a man who knows the law. However, I can
allow for the heat of your excitement. As regards the rest of your
speech, you will permit me to say that its wildness of language is only
equaled by the utter irrationality of your deductions and your absolute
ignorance of all legalities. Were you alone concerned and alone the
discoverer of this fraud, you could prosecute or not as you please;
but we are subjects of its imposition, ours is the money that he
has obtained by that forgery, and we shall in consequence open the
prosecution."

"Prosecution?" The echo rang in an absolute agony from his hearer; he
had thought of it as, at its worst, only a question between himself and
Cecil.

The accused gave no sigh, the rigidity and composure he had sustained
throughout did not change; but at the Seraph's accent the hunted and
pathetic misery which had once before gleamed in his eyes came there
again; he held his comrade in a loyal and exceeding love. He would have
let all the world stone him, but he could not have borne that his friend
should cast even a look of contempt.

"Prosecution!" replied Baroni. "It is a matter of course, my lord, that
Mr. Cecil denies the accusation; it is very wise; the law specially
cautions the accused to say nothing to criminate themselves. But we
waste time in words; and, pardon me, if you have your friend's interest
at heart, you will withdraw this very stormy championship; this utterly
useless opposition to an inevitable line of action. I must attest Mr.
Cecil; but I am willing--for I know to high families these misfortunes
are terribly distressing--to conduct everything with the strictest
privacy and delicacy. In a word, if you and he consult his interests,
he will accompany me unresistingly; otherwise I must summon legal force.
Any opposition will only compel a very unseemly encounter of physical
force, and with it the publicity I am desirous, for the sake of his
relatives and position, to spare him."

A dead silence followed his words, the silence that follows on an insult
that cannot be averted or avenged; on a thing too hideously shameful for
the thoughts to grasp it as reality.

In the first moment of Baroni's words Cecil's eyes had gleamed again
with that dark and desperate flash of a passion that would ha