ed faintly, and glanced at him, but made no answer.

'I knew he wasn't to be trusted,' pursued her brother, with gloomy
satisfaction. 'And I had far better means of judging than father or
you; but, of course, my suspicions were ungenerous and cynical.'

'Will you come to the point?' said Sidwell, in an irritated tone.

'I think you read this article in _The Critical_?' He approached and
showed it to her. 'We spoke of it once, _a propos_ of M'Naughten's
book.'

She raised her eyes, and met his with a look of concern she could not
disguise.

'What of that?'

'Peak is the author of it. It seems to have been written just about the
time when I met him and brought him here as a visitor, and it was
published after he had begun to edify you with his zeal for
Christianity.'

She held out her hand.

'You remember the tone of the thing?' Buckland added. 'I'll leave it
with you; but just glance at one or two of the passages I have marked.
The Anglicanism of their writer is decidedly "broad", it seems to me.'

He moved apart and watched his sister as she bent over the pages. There
was silence for five minutes. Seeing that Sidwell had ceased to read,
he ejaculated, 'Well?'

'Has Mr. Peak admitted the authorship?' she asked, slowly and
distinctly.

'Yes, and with a cool impudence I hardly expected.'

'Do you mean that he has made no attempt to justify himself?'

'None worth listening to. Practically, he refused an explanation.'

Sidwell rested her forehead lightly upon the tips of her fingers; the
periodical slipped from her lap and lay open on the floor.

'How did you find this out?'

'In the simplest way. Knowing perfectly well that I had only to get
familiar with some of his old friends to obtain proof that he was an
impostor, I followed up my acquaintance with Miss Moxey--got hold of
her brother--called upon them. Whilst I was there, a man named Malkin
came in, and somehow or other he began talking of Peak. I learned at
once precisely what I expected, that Peak was known to all these people
as a violent anti-Christian. Malkin refused to believe the story of his
going in for the Church--it sounded to him a mere joke. Then came out
the fact that he had written this article. They all knew about it.'

He saw a flush of shame upon Sidwell's half-hidden face. It gratified
him. He was resolved to let her taste all the bitterness of her folly.

'It seems pretty clear that the Moxeys--at all events Miss Moxey--knew
t