the name he had given to her and their children.

Her name! This morning, and for many days to come, it would be
advertised as the author of the new book, which was to have been one of
her stepping-stones to fame. She had grasped at fame, and her hand had
closed upon infamy. There was no fear now that she would remain among
the crowd of the unknown. As the wife of a fraudulent banker she would
be only too well and too widely talked of.

Why had she let her own full name be published? She had yielded, though
with some reluctance, to the business-like policy of her publisher, who
had sought to catch the public eye by it; for her father, Lord
Riversdale, was hardly yet forgotten as an author. A vague sentiment of
loyalty to her husband had caused her to add her married name. She hated
to see the two blazoned together on the title-page.

Sick at heart, she sat for hours brooding over what would happen if
Roland was arrested. The assizes held twice a year at Riversborough had
been to her, as to many people of her position, an occasion of
pleasurable excitement. The judges' lodgings were in the next house to
the Old Bank, and for the few days the judges were Roland Sefton's
neighbors there had been a friendly interchange of civilities. An assize
ball was still held, though it was falling into some neglect and
disrepute. Whenever any cause of special local interest took place she
had commanded the best seat in the court, and had obsequious attention
paid to her. She had learned well the aspect of the place, and the mode
of procedure. But hitherto her recollections of a court of justice were
all agreeable, and her impressions those of a superior being looking
down from above on the miseries and crimes of another race.

How different was the vision that branded itself on her brain this
morning! She saw her husband standing at the dock, instead of some
coarse, ignorant, brutish criminal; the stern gravity of the judge; the
flippant curiosity of the barristers not connected with the case, and
the cruel eagerness of his fellow-townsmen to get good places to hear
and see him. It would make a holiday for all who could get within the
walls.

She could have written almost word for word the report of the trial as
it would appear in the two papers published in Riversborough. She could
foretell how lavish would be the use of the words "felon" and "convict;"
and she would be that felon and convict's wife.

Oh, this intolerable burden