to save the family name."

"I did, and, much as I hated your sacrifice, it was necessary."

"More necessary than you think," said Lady Agnes, sinking her voice to
a whisper and glancing round, "In a moment of madness Garvington altered
a check which Hubert gave him, and was in danger of arrest. Hubert
declared that he would give up the check if I married him. I did so, to
save my brother and the family name."

"Oh, Agnes!" Lambert jumped up. "I never knew this."

"It was not necessary to tell you. I made the excuse of saving the
family name and property generally. You thought it was merely the
bankruptcy court, but I knew that it meant the criminal court. However,
I married Hubert, and he put the check in the fire in my presence and in
Garvington's. He has also fulfilled his share of the bargain which he
made when he bought me, and has paid off a great many of the mortgages.
However, Garvington became too outrageous in his demands, and lately
Hubert has refused to help him any more. I don't blame him; he has paid
enough for me."

"You are worth it," said Lambert emphatically.

"Well, you may think so, and perhaps he does also. But does it not
strike you, Noel, what a poor figure I and Garvington, and the whole
family, yourself included, cut in the eyes of the world? We were poor,
and I was sold to get money to save the land."

"Yes, but this changing of the check also--"

"The world doesn't know of that," said Agnes hurriedly. "Hubert has been
very loyal to me. I must be loyal to him."

"You are. Who dares to say that you are not?"

"No one--as yet," she replied pointedly.

"What do you mean by that?" he demanded, flushing through his fair skin.

"I mean that if you met me in the ordinary way, and behaved to me as an
ordinary man, people would not talk. But you shun my society, and even
when I am at The Manor, you do not come near because of my presence."

"It is so hard to be near you and yet, owing to your marriage, so far
from you," muttered the man savagely.

"If it is hard for you, think how hard it must be for me," said the
woman vehemently, her passion coming to the surface. "People talk of the
way in which you avoid me, and hint that we love one another still."

"It is true! Agnes, you know it is true!"

"Need the whole world know that it is true?" cried Agnes, rising, with
a gust of anger passing over her face. "If you would only come to The
Manor, and meet me in London, and accept Hubert's in