had to be done, and the sooner the better," he said, turning
away.

"So I suppose," said Johnson.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE TONGUE OF SCANDAL.

Alan returned to town with the full knowledge that he had something
formidable to face and overcome.

He had gone to Birchmead partly in redemption of an old promise to his
aunt, not knowing when he might be able to keep it if he did not do so
now, and partly because his mind had been distracted by a fresh outbreak
of violence in his wife, and he found it absolutely impossible to sit
still and endure in patience.

The country journey refreshed him, and he came back stronger and braver
than before. He was resolved to press for his divorce, and as Lettice
was in Italy, no time could be better than the present for proving to
the desperate woman, who was trying to terrify him, that there were laws
in England to which she must yield obedience. He assured himself that he
was now prepared for any fate; and yet that which had happened before he
left town was an earnest of what he had to expect.

What had happened was this.

A few days before Cora had been served with a notice to appear and
defend the suit for divorce which her husband was bringing against her;
and this had set her inflammable soul on fire. She had tried hard to
discover his whereabouts, without success. She had gone to Maple Cottage
and banged at the door in such furious style, that a policeman, who
happened to be passing, came up to see what was wrong, just as the new
occupants made their appearance, in mingled alarm and indignation.

"I want Miss Campion," said Cora, who was half-intoxicated, but still
more excited by rage and jealousy.

"She no longer lives here," said the man at the door.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know. And I should not tell you if I did. Policeman, take this
woman in charge for annoying me! You must have seen her knocking like a
fury--and now she is evidently tipsy."

Her rage increased rather than diminished when she found that her
intended prey had escaped her, she began to declaim at the top of her
voice, and to shriek hysterically; and the policeman, regarding it as a
simple case of "drunk and disorderly," took her off to the station,
where she was locked up.

The first that Alan heard of it was from the papers next morning. In one
of these, which he was accustomed to read after breakfast, he found the
following report:--

"At Hammersmith, a dissipated-looking woman, who g