she did, she would have attached but little
importance to it. The loyal faith she had in her husband's honour
would have accepted as obvious a far less plausible explanation.

On the day following the rehearsal Messrs. Chilton and Fladgate were
made aware of the facts relating to the authorship of 'Illusion,'
whereupon they both expressed a not unnatural annoyance at having
been, as they considered, made the victims of a deception. Mr.
Fladgate, especially, who had always prided himself immensely upon the
sagacity which had led him to detect Mark at once, and who had never
wearied of telling the story, indulged in some strong observations.

Vincent vindicated as well as he could the scheme in which he was the
most guiltless of accessories after the fact, and Mark kept in the
background and said as little as possible; he felt distinctly
uncomfortable, however, when Mr. Chilton drily inquired whether the
same mystification attached to 'Sweet Bells Jangled,' and on being
reassured as to this, observed that it was a little unfortunate that
the matter had not been explained before the latter book had been
brought out. 'If you think you are prejudiced in any way,' Mark said,
flushing angrily, 'we can easily come to some other arrangement!'
'Oh,' said Mr. Chilton, 'I was not thinking of it from a pecuniary
point of view exactly--we shall not lose much--as far as money is
concerned, I dare say!'

'My partner,' explained Mr. Fladgate, 'was thinking of the results
this will have upon our reputation in the trade;' on which Vincent
tried to appease him by promising to make it abundantly clear that the
firm were no parties to the concealment, and as soon as the partners
understood that it was not proposed to disturb any existing
arrangements respecting 'Illusion,' beyond disclosing the truth, and
having some necessary revisions inserted in any future edition, they
parted amicably enough, though Mark was made to understand his altered
standing in the most unmistakable manner.

And in a few days, by means which it is not necessary to particularise
here, the version of the affair given by Vincent at Grosvenor Gardens
was made known to all those who might find it of interest.

The announcement, when it became generally known, caused a certain
amount of surprise and remark, but not nearly so much as might have
been expected. Hawthorne, in his preface to the 'Scarlet Letter,' has
remarked the utter insignificance of literary achievem