named
Northway. That means, of course, he made up to them, and the aunt was
idiot enough to let him keep talking. He stuck by them all day, and
accompanied them back to Bristol.--Pah! it sickens me to tell the
story!"

He took the glass to drink, but it slipped from his nervous fingers and
crashed on the ground.

"Never mind; let it be there. I have had whisky enough. This damned
fellow Northway soon called upon them, and was allowed to come as often
as he liked. He was a clerk in a commercial house--gave references
which were found to be satisfactory enough, a great talker, and of
course a consummate liar. His special interest was the condition of the
lower classes; he made speeches here and there, went slumming, called
himself a Christian Socialist. This kind of thing was no doubt
attractive to Lilian--you know enough of her to understand that. She
was a girl of seventeen, remember. In the end, Northway asked her to
marry him, and she consented."

"Did he know of the money?" inquired Glazzard.

"Undoubtedly. I shouldn't wonder if the blockhead aunt told. Well, the
wedding-day came; they were married; and--just as they came out of the
church, up walks a detective, claps his hand on Northway's shoulder,
and arrests him for forgery."

"H'm! I see."

"The fellow was tried. Lilian wouldn't tell me the details; she gave me
an old newspaper with full report. Northway had already, some years
before, been in the hands of the police in London. It came out now that
he was keeping a mistress; on the eve of marriage he had dispensed with
her services, and the woman, in revenge, went to his employers to let
them know certain suspicious facts. He was sent to penal servitude for
three years."

"Three years!" murmured Glazzard. "About so ago, I suppose?"

"Yes; perhaps he is already restored to society. Pleasant reflection!"

"Moral and discreet law," remarked the other, "which maintains the
validity of such a marriage!"

Denzil uttered a few violent oaths, reminiscences of the Navy.

"And she went at once to Sweden?" Glazzard inquired.

"In a month or two the head-mistress of her school, a sensible woman,
helped her to get an engagement--with not a word said of the
catastrophe. She went as Miss Allen. It was her firm resolve never
again to see Northway. She would not acknowledge that that ceremony in
the church made her a wife. Of course, you understand that it wasn't
only the forgery that revolted her; that, I suppos