hese two
months. I lent it--to--ah, here she is! Mary, save me from shame; you
know I am innocent."

Mary, who was standing at the window in Hope's study, came slowly
forward, pale as death with her own trouble, to do an act of womanly
justice. "Miss Clifford," said she, languidly, as one to whom all human
events were comparatively indifferent--"Miss Clifford lent the bracelet
to me, and I left it at that man's inn." This she said right in the
middle of them all.

The hotel-keeper took the bracelet from the unresisting hand of Bartley,
touched his hat, and gave it to her.

"There, mistress," said he. "I could have told them you was the lady, but
they would not let a poor fellow get a word in edgeways." He retired with
an obeisance.

Mary handed the bracelet to Julia, and then remained passive.

A dead silence fell upon them all, and a sort of horror crept over Mary
Bartley at what must follow; but come what might, no power should
induce her to say the word that should send Walter Clifford to jail for
seven years.

Bartley came to her; she trembled, and her hands worked.

"What are you saying, you fool?" he whispered. "The lady that left the
bracelet was there with a gentleman."

Mary winced.

Then Bartley said, sternly, "Who was your companion?"

"I must not say."

"You will say one thing," said Bartley, "or I shall have no mercy on you.
Are you secretly married?"

Then a single word flashed across Mary's almost distracted
mind--SELF-SACRIFICE. She held her tongue.

"Can't you speak? Are you a wife?" He now began to speak so loud in his
anger that everybody heard it.

Mary crouched a little and worked her hands convulsively under the
torture, but she answered with such a doggedness that evidently she would
have let herself be cut to pieces sooner than said more.

"I--don't--know."

"You don't know?" roared Bartley.

Mary paused, and then, with iron doggedness, "I--don't--know."

This apparent insult to his common-sense drove Bartley almost mad. "You
have given these cursed Cliffords a triumph over me," he cried; "you have
brought shame to my door; but it shall never pass the threshold." Here
the Colonel uttered a contemptuous snort. This drove Bartley wild
altogether; he rushed at the Colonel, and shook his fist in his face.
"You stand there sneering at my humiliation; now see the example I can
make." Then he was down upon Mary in a moment, and literally yelled at
her in his fury. "Go to your pa