d listen. I have a much clearer head than yours,
poor boy. There's only one way of facing this scandal, and that is to
tell everything. For one thing, I shall not let you shield that
woman--we shall catch her yet. I shall not let you disgrace yourself by
inventing squalid stories. Don't you see, too, that the disgrace would
be shared by--by the dead man? Would that be right? And another
thing--if shame comes upon you, do you think I have no part in it? We
have to face it out with the truth.'

'You don't know what that means,' he answered, with a groan. 'You don't
know the world.'

Sibyl did not smile, but her lips seemed only to check themselves when
the smile was half born.

'I know enough of it, Hugh, to despise it; and I know you much better
than you know yourself. You are not one of the men who can tell lies
and make them seem the truth. I don't think my name will suffer. I
shall stand by you from first to last. The real true story can't
possibly be improved upon. That woman had every motive for deceiving
you, and her disappearance is all against her. You have to confess your
hot-headedness--that can't be helped. You tell everything--even down to
the mistake about the telegram. I shall go with you to the
police-station; I shall be at the inquest; I shall be at the court.
It's the only chance.'

'Good God! how can I let you do this?'

'You had rather, then, that I seemed to hide away? You had rather set
people thinking that there is coldness between us? We must go up
tonight. Look out the trains, quick.'

'But your mother, Sibyl----'

'She is dead; she cares nothing. I have to think of my husband.'

Hugh caught her and crushed her in his arms.

'My darling, worse than killing a man who never harmed me was to think
wrong of you!'

Her face had grown very pale. She closed her eyes, smiled faintly as
she leaned her head against him, and of a sudden burst into tears.

CHAPTER 14

'It shows one's ignorance of such matters,' said Harvey Rolfe, with
something of causticity in his humour, when Alma came home after
midnight. 'I should have thought that, by way of preparing for
tomorrow, you would have quietly rested today.'

He looked round at her. Alma had entered the study as usual, and was
taking off her gloves; but the effort of supporting herself seemed too
great, she trembled towards the nearest chair, and affected to laugh at
her feebleness as she sank down.

'Rest will come _after_,' she sai