e it all!--her flight, and Tanner's maudlin
sympathy--tears--caresses--the natural sequel. And then her pose of
complete innocence at the divorce proceedings--the Judge's remarks.
Revolting hypocrisy! If Tanner had been still alive, he would somehow
have exposed him--somehow have made him pay. Lucky for him he was drowned
in that boat accident on Lake Nipissing! And no doubt Rachel thought that
the accident had made everything safe for her.

Every incident now, every phase of his conversation with her was
assuming a monstrous and distorted significance in his mind. How easily
she had yielded on the subject of the money! He might have asked a great
deal more--and he would have got it. Very likely Ellesborough was well
off--Yankees generally were--and she knew that what she gave Delane as
hush money would make very little difference to her. Ellesborough no
doubt would not look very closely into her shekels, having sufficient of
his own. Otherwise it might occur to him to wonder how she had got rid of
that L500. Would it pinch her? Probably, if all she had for capital was
the old chap's legacy. Well--serve her right--serve her, damned, doubly
right! Ellesborough's kisses would make up.

These thoughts, after a momentary respite, held him in their grip as he
walked London streets. Suspicion of the past--ugly and venomous--flapped
its black wings about him. Had Rachel ever been faithful to him--even in
the early days? She had made acquaintance with the Tanners very soon
after their marriage. Looking back, a number of small incidents and
scenes poked their heads out of the dead level of the past. Rachel
and Tanner, discussing the Watts photograph when Rachel first acquired
it--Tanner's eager denunciatory talk--he called himself an
"impressionist"--the creature!--because he couldn't draw worth a
cent--Rachel all smiles and deference. She had never given _him_ that
sort of attention. Or Rachel at a housewarming in the next farm to
his--Rachel in a pale green dress, the handsomest woman there, dancing
with Tanner--Rachel quarrelling with him in the buggy on the way home,
because he called Tanner a milksop--"He cares for beautiful things, and
you don't!--but that's no reason why you should abuse him."

And what about those weeks not very long after that dance, when he had
gone off to the land-sale at Edmonton (that was the journey, by the way,
when he first saw Anita!), and Rachel had stayed at home, with a girl
friend, a girl