ve and
the willing victim of all her caprices. What was it, then, which so
completely changed him that a separation began to be talked of and even
its terms discussed? One rumour had it that the father had discovered
the secret of the grotto and exacted this as a penalty from the son who
had dishonoured him. Another, that Roger himself was the one to take the
initiative in this matter: That, on returning unexpectedly from New York
one evening and finding her missing from the house, he had traced her to
the grotto where he came upon her playing a desperate game with the one
man he had the greatest reason to distrust.

But whatever the explanation of this sudden change in their relations,
there is but little doubt that a legal separation between this
ill-assorted couple was pending, when one bleak autumn morning she
was discovered dead in her bed under circumstances peculiarly open to
comment.

The physicians who made out the certificate ascribed her death to
heart-disease, symptoms of which had lately much alarmed the family
doctor; but that a personal struggle of some kind had preceded the fatal
attack was evident from the bruises which blackened her wrists. Had
there been the like upon her throat it might have gone hard with the
young husband who was known to be contemplating her dismissal from
the house. But the discoloration of her wrists was all, and as bruised
wrists do not kill and there was besides no evidence forthcoming of the
two having spent one moment together for at least ten hours preceding
the tragedy but rather full and satisfactory testimony to the contrary,
the matter lapsed and all criminal proceedings were avoided.

But not the scandal which always follows the unexplained. As time passed
and the peculiar look which betrays the haunted soul gradually became
visible in the young widower's eyes, doubts arose and reports circulated
which cast strange reflections upon the tragic end of his mistaken
marriage. Stories of the disreputable use to which the old grotto
had been put were mingled with vague hints of conjugal violence never
properly investigated. The result was his general avoidance not only by
the social set dominated by his high-minded father, but by his own less
reputable coterie, which, however lax in its moral code, had very little
use for a coward.

Such was the gossip which had reached Violet's ears in connection with
this new client, prejudicing her altogether against him till she caug