es--they ought to have their
tongues cut out! How could they utter such shameful lies!"

But the sobs seemed to intensify. Suddenly Edala flung up her head.

"I--believed--it--myself. God--help me!"

"No--no--no! You couldn't have," and the momentary instinct to shrink
away from the utterer of this terrible self-denunciation, passed. "You
have been so frightfully upset, Edala, and you hardly know what you are
saying. Why I have known your father for weeks only, and you have known
him all your life, and yet I would no more believe him guilty of--of
what those horrible wretches were saying than I would yourself. It is
impossible that you could have done so."

"But I did. I don't now--and it is too late. _He_ predicted that that
would happen, and so did you. Too late--too late!"

And again her face was buried in her hands.

No one living was farther removed from the hysterical tendency than
Evelyn Carden, but now she required every effort of her will to command
her own nerves--not to break down herself. The inconceivable despair
with which those last words were uttered was awful. Quickly again Edala
looked up.

"If he does not come back to me," she said, slowly and solemnly, "that I
may tell him what a horrible wicked wretch I've been to him, I shall go
and tell him in the other world. I shall kill myself. As sure as there
is a God above I shall kill myself."

The words were not uttered passionately. There was a calm solemnity
about them which caused the other to believe that she would keep her
word. What comfort could be administered to such remorse as this?

Then, in a moment, the scales dropped from Evelyn's eyes, and she stood
there as one who beheld a new revelation. Everything stood clear now,
the aloofness with which the neighbourhood had treated her relatives and
for which Thornhill had, with good-humoured contempt, pronounced himself
duly thankful; in that the said neighbourhood consisted of a rotten
crowd, the bulk of whom were scarcely able to write their own names, and
the residue perhaps too well able to write those of other people.
Edala's attitude, too, stood explained. If she believed that her father
had done this thing why the estrangement was only natural. If she
believed--but--how could she--how could she? Before Evelyn could reply,
however, a step was heard outside, and the door opened.

Hyland half drew back, then entered.

"Now, now, you two. This won't do you know. D