or two, I told him that the whole amount was four
thousand pounds. Therefore he is to have two thousand pounds for his
share. And quite enough too."

"Treachery on treachery!" said his wife. "Fraud on fraud! Would to
GOD," she added with a sigh, "that you had never met this man!"

"I dare say it would have been better for me, on the whole," he
replied. "But then, my dear, a man like myself is always meeting people
whom it would have been better not to have met. Like will to like, I
suppose. Given the active villain and the passive consenter, and they
are sure to meet. Not that I throw stones at the worthy doctor. Not at
all."

"We cannot, Harry," said his wife.

"We cannot, my dear. _Bien entendu!_ Well, Iris, there is no more to be
said. You know the situation completely. You can back out of it if you
please, and leave me. Then I shall have to begin all over again a new
conspiracy far more dangerous than the last. Well, I shall not drag you
down with me. That is my resolution. If it comes to public
degradation--but it shall not. Iris, I promise you one thing." For once
he looked as if he meant it. "Death before dishonour. Death without
your name being mixed up at all, save with pity for being the wife of
such a man."

Again he conquered her.

"Harry," she said, "I will go."

CHAPTER LVIII

OF COURSE THEY WILL PAY

THREE days afterwards a hansom cab drove to the offices of the very
respectable firm of solicitors who managed the affairs of the Norland
family. They had one or two other families as well, and in spite of
agricultural depression, they made a very good thing indeed out of a
very comfortable business. The cab contained a lady in deep widow's
weeds.

Lady Harry Norland expected to be received with coldness and suspicion.
Her husband, she knew, had not led the life expected in these days of a
younger son. Nor had his record been such as to endear him to his elder
brother. Then, as may be imagined, there were other tremors, caused by
a guilty knowledge of certain facts which might by some accident "come
out." Everybody has tremors for whom something may come out. Also, Iris
had had no experience of solicitors, and was afraid of them.

Instead of being received, however, by a gentleman as solemn as the
Court of Chancery and as terrible as the Court of Assize, she found an
elderly gentleman, of quiet, paternal manners, who held both her hands,
and looked as if he was weeping over her bereavement.