nk that Mr. Lepel was right in objecting and
in trying to put a stop to it."

It was certain that he had very much softened the facts of the case; but
the General could not have looked more confounded, or Flossy more
overwhelmed, if a great deal more had been said. The veins swelled upon
the old man's forehead, his face grew lividly purple as he strode over
to his wife's side and laid his hand heavily on her shoulder.

"Florence, is this true?" he said.

She sat mute and shrinking in her chair, crushed as if beneath an
invisible weight--her hands clasped, her white face averted. Miss Vane,
watching her eagerly, felt with a thrill of horror that she looked like
a guilty woman.

"Is this true?" the General asked again, giving her a little shake. But
Flossy still sat mute.

Then Miss Vane interposed.

"Let her alone, Richard," she said. "She is overcome--she cannot answer
just now. She will explain everything by-and-by."

"Speak!" cried the General, his eyes blazing with rage. He would have
shaken her again and more violently if Hubert had not interfered.

"You forget, sir, that she is a woman and that she is your wife," he
said. "Whatever may have happened in the past, she has no doubt
regretted what was an imprudence. I was to blame for taking up the
matter too seriously. You know what your brother was; I know my sister.
We must judge them by what we know."

The words were halting and ambiguous; but they produced some effect. The
General fell back, still gazing at his wife; and Flossy, released from
the pressure of his heavy hand, sat up and looked about her with a
strange red light glowing in her eyes. Then, to everybody's horror, she
burst into a fit of wild laughter terrible to hear.

"He says that he knows his sister!" she cried. "Oh, yes--he knows her
well enough! What maudlin stuff will he talk next? 'Imprudence' in
meeting each other in the wood! I tell you that Sydney Vane loved
me--that he was ready to abandon wife and child for me!"

"Florence, have mercy! Stop--stop!" cried Hubert. But his sister would
not stop.

"He was ready to go to the world's end with me, I tell you! We had
arranged to start the next day--we were going to Ceylon, never to come
back again. We meant to be happy because we loved each other. That was
what Hubert found out!" she cried, laughing wildly. "That was what he
tried to stop! That was why he killed Sydney Vane--the man I loved--oh,
Heaven, the man for whom I would have