ssness, and there is no use in fostering a sense of
injury or suspicion, when what is done cannot be undone,' he said
wearily.

'Indeed you are quite right,' said Adela earnestly. 'You know how to be
in charity with all men. Oh, the needless misery of hasty unjust
suspicions!' Then as he looked up at her--'Do you know our own story?'

'Only the main facts.'

'I think you ought to know it. It accounts for so much!' said she, moved
partly by the need of utterance, and partly by the sense that the turn of
his thoughts might be good for him. 'You know what a passion for horses
there has always been in this family.'

'I know--I could have had it if my life had begun more prosperously.'

'And you have done your best to save Herbert from it. Well, my Arthur
had it to a great degree; and so indeed had Bertha. They were brought up
to nothing else; Bertha was, I really think, a better judge than her
brother, she was not so reckless. They became intimate with a Captain
Alder, who was in the barracks at Copington--much the nicest, as I used
to think, of the set, though I was not very glad to see an attachment
growing up between him and Bertha. There was always such a capacity of
goodness in her that I longed to see her in the way of being raised
altogether.'

'She has always been most kind to us. There is much to admire in her.'

'Her present life has developed all that is best; but--' She hesitated,
wondering whether the good simple man were sensible of that warp in the
nature that she had felt. She went on, 'Then she was a masterful,
high-spirited girl, to whom it seemed inevitable to come to high words
with any one about whom she cared. And I must say--she and my husband,
while they were passionately fond of one another, seemed to have a sort
of fascination in provoking one another, not only in words but in deeds.
Ah, you can hardly believe it of her! How people get tamed! Well,
Arthur bought a horse, a beautiful creature, but desperately vicious.
Captain Alder had been with him when he first saw it, and admired it; but
I do not think gave an opinion against it. Bertha, however, from the
moment she saw its eyes and ears, protested against it in her vehement
way. I remember imploring her not to make Arthur defy her; but really
when they got into those moods, I don't think they could stop themselves,
and she thought Captain Alder encouraged him. So Arthur went out on that
fatal drive in the dog-cart, and n