her, Lord Harry is alive and well.

"What have they done it for? First of all, I suppose, to get money. If
it were not for the purpose of getting money the doctor would have had
nothing to do with the conspiracy, which was his own invention. That is
very certain. Your idea was they would try to get money out of the
Insurance Offices. I suppose that is their design. But Lord Harry may
have many other secret reasons of his own for wishing to be thought
dead. They say his life has been full of wicked things, and he may well
wish to be considered dead and gone. Lots of wicked men would like
above all things, I should think, to be considered dead and buried. But
the money matter is at the bottom of all, I am convinced. What are we
to do?"

What could they do? These two women had got hold of a terrible secret.
Neither of them could move. It was too big a thing. One cannot expect a
woman to bring her own husband--however wicked a husband he may be--to
the awful shame and horror of the gallows if murder should be
proved--or to a lifelong imprisonment if the conspiracy alone should be
brought home to him. Therefore Mrs. Vimpany could do nothing. As for
Fanny, the mere thought of the pain she would inflict upon her
mistress, were Lord Harry, through her interference, to be brought to
justice and an infamous sentence, kept her quiet.

Meantime, the announcement of Lord Harry's death had been made. Those
who knew the family history spoke cheerfully of the event. "Best timing
he had ever done. Very good thing for his people. One more bad lot out
of the way. Dead, Sir, and a very good thing, too. Married, I believe.
One of the men who have done everything. Pity they can't write a life
of him." These were the comments made upon the decease of this young
gentleman. Such is fame. Next day he was clean forgotten; just as if he
had never existed. Such is life.

CHAPTER LVII

AT LOUVAIN

NOT many English tourists go out of their way to visit Louvain, even
though it has a Hotel de Ville surpassing even that of Brussels itself,
and though one can get there in an hour from that city of youth and
pleasure. And there are no English residents at all in the place--at
least, none in evidence, though perhaps there may be some who have gone
there for the same reasons which led Mr. William Linville and his wife
to choose this spot--in order to be private and secluded. There are
many more people than we know of who desire, above all things,