all the world?

Rachel turned from the window with a shudder; she caught up the first
newspaper of the sheaf upon the writing-table. Steel had moved into the
body of the room; she could not even see him through the alcove. So much
the better; she would discover for herself what they said.

Leading articles are easily found, and in a Sunday paper they are seldom
long. Rachel was soon through the first, her blood boiling; the second
she could not finish for her tears; the third dried her eyes with the
fires of fierce resentment. It was not so much what they said; it was
what they were obviously afraid to say. It was their circumlocution,
their innuendo, their mild surprise, their perfunctory congratulations,
their assumption of chivalry and their lack of its essence, that wounded
and stung the subject of these effusions. As she raised her flushed face
from the last of them, Mr. Steel stood before her once more, the
incarnation of all grave sympathy and consideration.

"You must not think," said he, "that my proposal admits of no
alternative but the miserable one of making your own way in a suspicious
and uncharitable world. On the contrary, if I am not to be your nominal
and legal husband, I still intend to be your actual friend. On the first
point you are to be consulted, but on the second not even you shall
stand in my way. Nor in that event would I attempt to rob you of the
independence which you value so highly; on the other hand, I would
point the way to an independence worth having. I am glad you have seen
those papers, though to-morrow they may be worse. Well, you may be
shocked, but, if you won't have me, the worse the better, say I! Your
case was most iniquitously commented upon before ever it came for trial;
there is sure to be a fresh crop of iniquities now; but I shall be much
mistaken if you cannot mulct the more flagrant offenders in heavy
damages for libel."

Rachel shivered at the thought. She was done with her case for ever and
for ever. People could think her guilty if they liked, but that the case
should breed other cases, and thus drag on and on, and, above all, that
she should make money out of all that past horror, what an unbearable
idea!

On second thoughts, Mr. Steel agreed.

"Then you must let me send you back to Australia." No, no, no; she could
never show her face there again, or anywhere else where she was known.
She must begin life afresh, that was evident.

"It was evident to me," sa