e Works. You know, I
told you he usually talked to me about that--"

He said that he remembered; and each was then aware that the harmony of
a moment ago had somehow slipped away from them. Canning, indeed,
instead of being enlightened by the explanation, was more bewildered
than ever. How could it be that this man, her father's assailant in the
newspapers, the religious fellow whom Carlisle had never mentioned but
to belittle, should have been the recipient of intimate confidences
which she had withheld from him, her future husband? Naturally he could
not understand in the least. However, glancing at her still face, he
forbore to put another question.

"Well, that's got nothing to do with it anyway," he said, lightly,
dismissing the side-issue. "Now, let's see.... Sit back comfortably, my
dear, and we'll take it all quietly from the beginning...."

Hugo had got his facts from Mrs. Heth, and nothing had happened yet to
suggest that they were in any way inaccurate. On the contrary, they
seemed to have received subtle moral corroboration, so instinctive was
it for the lover to lean backward from the views foisted upon Carlisle
by her singular and religious confidant. That he himself was capable of
coloring the case, attorney-wise, to suit the common interest did not
really cross his mind.

The whole issue in the singular muddle, he pointed out, seemed to be
whether or not the poor fellow had known that the boat was upset. Well,
who could say what he knew, an intoxicated man in a blind passion? Not
Carlisle, certainly, plunged suddenly into the sea and intensely
occupied with saving her life. How, for instance, could she know it if,
in the instant when she was under water, the man had glanced back
and--deadened by his drunken anger, admit that for him--had not returned
for her? Of the dozens of people who had witnessed the disaster, not one
had doubted that the unfortunate chap's desertion of her had been
deliberate.... However, imagine that it hadn't been, exactly, imagine
that the women in their excitement and resentment, and through
misunderstanding of each other's statements, had failed to give him the
full benefit of the doubt. It was still a great mistake to assume that
what they had said or left unsaid had been decisive. Public opinion,
knowing the unstable character of the man, had already judged him. Did
his later life and behavior indicate, really, that that judgment was far
wrong? And as to that night of exc