usband and child, the esteem of her friends. All lay in
their hands. They could, if they would, make her name, that noble name
which her husband bore so proudly, a subject of jest all over the world.

She could fancy the papers, their paragraphs, their remarks, their
comments. She could almost see the heading:

"Action for Breach of Promise against Lady Atherton." How the Radicals,
who hated her husband for his politics, would rejoice! Even in the years
to come, when her child grew to man's estate, it would be as a black
mark against him that his mother had been the subject of such vulgar
jest. Her husband would never bear it. He would leave her, she was sure.
Ah! better pay a thousand pounds over and over again than go through all
this.

Yet it seemed a large sum; not that she cared for it, but how could she
get it without her husband's knowledge? By her own wish, all money
affairs had been left in his hands; he would wonder when he looked at
her check book why she had drawn so large a sum; better write out checks
of a hundred pounds each.

She did so, and sent them. Just as she was folding the paper that
enclosed them a grand inspiration came to her--an impulse to go to her
husband and tell him all.

He would find some means of saving her, she was quite sure of that. Then
the more cowardly, the weaker part of her nature, rose in rebellion. She
dared not, for, if she did, he would never love her again. So she sent
the thousand pounds, and then there was an interval of peace. Yet not
peace for her; the sword was suspended over her head, and any moment it
might fall. She grew thin, restless and nervous; her husband and all her
friends wondered what ailed her; her manner changed, even her beautiful
face seemed to grow restless and pale.

Then came the demand for a second thousand. Having tasted the luxury of
spending what he liked and living without work, Allan Lyster was
entranced with his triumph. He had taken rooms in a very expensive and
fashionable locality, he bought a horse, and set up a private cab, with
a smart little tiger. He entered one of the fashionable clubs, and
people began to say that he had had money left him. If any one of the
gentlemen who met him and touched his hand, had but known that he was
trading on a woman's secret, they would have thrashed him with less
remorse of conscience than if they were punishing a mad dog.

Then the third thousand was asked for, and Lady Atherton was at a loss
w