l you can tell me of your own
free will. You asked me if I could have perfect faith in you, and I said
yes, and I meant it.'

It did not escape Bella's notice that he began to look triumphant. She
wanted no strengthening in her firmness; but if she had had need of any,
she would have derived it from his kindling face.

'You cannot have been prepared, my dearest, for such a discovery as that
this mysterious Mr Handford was identical with your husband?'

'No, John dear, of course not. But you told me to prepare to be tried,
and I prepared myself.'

He drew her to nestle closer to him, and told her it would soon be over,
and the truth would soon appear. 'And now,' he went on, 'lay stress,
my dear, on these words that I am going to add. I stand in no kind of
peril, and I can by possibility be hurt at no one's hand.'

'You are quite, quite sure of that, John dear?'

'Not a hair of my head! Moreover, I have done no wrong, and have injured
no man. Shall I swear it?'

'No, John!' cried Bella, laying her hand upon his lips, with a proud
look. 'Never to me!'

'But circumstances,' he went on '--I can, and I will, disperse them in
a moment--have surrounded me with one of the strangest suspicions ever
known. You heard Mr Lightwood speak of a dark transaction?'

'Yes, John.'

'You are prepared to hear explicitly what he meant?'

'Yes, John.'

'My life, he meant the murder of John Harmon, your allotted husband.'

With a fast palpitating heart, Bella grasped him by the arm. 'You cannot
be suspected, John?'

'Dear love, I can be--for I am!'

There was silence between them, as she sat looking in his face, with the
colour quite gone from her own face and lips. 'How dare they!' she cried
at length, in a burst of generous indignation. 'My beloved husband, how
dare they!'

He caught her in his arms as she opened hers, and held her to his heart.
'Even knowing this, you can trust me, Bella?'

'I can trust you, John dear, with all my soul. If I could not trust you,
I should fall dead at your feet.'

The kindling triumph in his face was bright indeed, as he looked up and
rapturously exclaimed, what had he done to deserve the blessing of this
dear confiding creature's heart! Again she put her hand upon his lips,
saying, 'Hush!' and then told him, in her own little natural pathetic
way, that if all the world were against him, she would be for him; that
if all the world repudiated him, she would believe him; that if he were