k from him in terror, flattening herself against
the wall.

"What did I tell you?" he said in a choked voice, and then passed on.
A few paces down the passage he met one of his own clerks, a sharp
fellow enough.

"Here, Jones," he said, "you see that woman there. She has made a
charge against me. Watch her. See where she goes to, and find out what
she is going to do. Then come and tell me at the office. If you lose
sight of her, you lose your place too. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," said the astonished clerk, and Mr. Quest was gone.

He made his way direct to the office. It was closed, for he had told
his clerks he should not come back after court, and that they could go
at half-past four. He had his key, however, and, entering, lit the
gas. Then he went to his safe and sorted some papers, burning a good
number of them. Two large documents, however, he put by his side to
read. One was his will, the other was endorsed "Statement of the
circumstances connected with Edith."

First he looked through his will. It had been made some years ago, and
was entirely in favour of his wife, or, rather, of his reputed wife,
Belle.

"It may as well stand," he said aloud; "if anything happens to me
she'll take about ten thousand under it, and that was what she brought
me." Taking the pen he went through the document carefully, and
wherever the name of "Belle Quest" occurred he put a X, and inserted
these words, "Gennett, commonly known as Belle Quest," Gennett being
Belle's maiden name, and initialled the correction. Next he glanced at
the Statement. It contained a full and fair account of his connection
with the woman who had ruined his life. "I may as well leave it," he
thought; "some day it will show Belle that I was not quite so bad as I
seemed."

He replaced the statement in a brief envelope, sealed and directed it
to Belle, and finally marked it, "Not to be opened till my death.--W.
Quest." Then he put the envelope away in the safe and took up the will
for the same purpose. Next it on the table lay the deeds executed by
Edward Cossey transferring the Honham mortgages to Mr. Quest in
consideration of his abstaining from the commencement of a suit for
divorce in which he proposed to join Edward Cossey as co-respondent.
"Ah!" he thought to himself, "that game is up. Belle is not my legal
wife, therefore I cannot commence a suit against her in which Cossey
would figure as co-respondent, and so the consideration fails. I am