, Mr. Manston's restored wife? Cytherea was perfectly safe
as a single woman whose marriage had been void. And if it turned out
that, though this woman was not Manston's wife, his wife was still
living, as Owen had suggested, in America or elsewhere, Cytherea was
safe.

The first supposition opened up the worst contingency. Was she really
safe as Manston's wife? Doubtful. But, however that might be, the
gentle, defenceless girl, whom it seemed nobody's business to help or
defend, should be put in a track to proceed against this man. She had
but one life, and the superciliousness with which all the world now
regarded her should be compensated in some measure by the man whose
carelessness--to set him in the best light--had caused it.

Mr. Raunham felt more and more positively that his duty must be done. An
inquiry must be made into the matter. Immediately on reaching home,
he sat down and wrote a plain and friendly letter to Mr. Manston, and
despatched it at once to him by hand. Then he flung himself back in
his chair, and went on with his meditation. Was there anything in the
suspicion? There could be nothing, surely. Nothing is done by a clever
man without a motive, and what conceivable motive could Manston have for
such abnormal conduct? Corinthian that he might be, who had preyed on
virginity like St. George's dragon, he would never have been absurd
enough to venture on such a course for the possession alone of the
woman--there was no reason for it--she was inferior to Cytherea in every
respect, physical and mental.

On the other hand, it seemed rather odd, when he analyzed the action,
that a woman who deliberately hid herself from her husband for more than
a twelvemonth should be brought back by a mere advertisement. In fact,
the whole business had worked almost too smoothly and effectually
for unpremeditated sequence. It was too much like the indiscriminate
righting of everything at the end of an old play. And there was that
curious business of the keys and watch. Her way of accounting for their
being left behind by forgetfulness had always seemed to him rather
forced. The only unforced explanation was that suggested by the
newspaper writers--that she left them behind on purpose to blind people
as to her escape, a motive which would have clashed with the possibility
of her being fished back by an advertisement, as the present woman had
been. Again, there were the two charred bones. He shuffled the books and
paper