I wouldn't have been such a fool," he said with
abrupt vehemence. "I would never have run that infernal risk."

"What risk?" she said.

He laughed, a half-shamed laugh. "Oh, I didn't quite mean to let that
out. Consider it unsaid! Only a man without ties is apt to risk more than
a man who has more to lose. I've had the most fantastic ill-luck this
year that ever fell any man's lot before."

"At least you were vindicated," Violet said.

"Oh, that!" said Wentworth. "Well, it was beginning to be time my luck
turned, wasn't it? It was rank enough to be caught, but if I'd been
convicted, I'd have hanged myself. Now tell me! Was it Field's brilliant
defence that dazzled you into marrying him?"

She did not answer him. She turned instead and faced him in the darkness.
"Burleigh! What do you mean by risk? What do you mean by being--caught?
You don't mean--you can't mean--that you--that you were--guilty!"

Her voice shook. The words tumbled over each other. Her hand wrenched
itself free.

"My dear girl!" said Wentworth. "Don't be so melodramatic! No man is
guilty until he is proved so. And--thanks to the kindly offices of
your good husband--I did not suffer the final catastrophe."

"But--but--but--" Her utterance seemed suddenly choked. She rose, feeling
blindly for the door.

"It's locked," said Wentworth, and there was a ring of malice in his
voice. "I say, don't be unreasonable! You shouldn't ask unnecessary
questions, you know. Other people don't. For Heaven's sake, let's enjoy
what we've got and leave the past alone!"

"Open the door!" gasped Violet in a whisper.

He rose without haste. Her white dress made her conspicuous in the
dimness. Her cloak had fallen from her, and she seemed unaware of it.

He reached out as if to open the door, and then very suddenly his
intention changed. He caught her to him.

"By Heaven," he said, and laughed savagely, "I'll have my turn first!"

She turned in his hold, turned like a trapped creature in the first wild
moment of capture, struggling so fiercely that she broke through his grip
before he had made it secure.

He stumbled against the boat, but she sprang from him, sprang for the
open moonlight and the lapping water, and the next instant she was gone
from his sight.

CHAPTER VII

The water was barely up to her knees, but she stumbled among slippery
stones as she fled round the corner of the boat-house, and twice she
nearly fell. There were reeds growing by