nd becoming calmer.

"Yes, you can. I don't offer you brandy or smelling salts, or anything
of the sort, because I know you to be a woman with a firm mind. Exert
your will, and compel your nerves to be calm. This exhibition is too
cheap."

"Oh," cried Agnes indignantly, and this feeling was the one Lambert
wished to arouse, "how can you talk so?"

"Because I love you and respect you," he retorted.

She knew that he meant what he said, and that her firmness of mind and
self-control had always appealed to him, therefore she made a great
effort and subdued her unruly nerves. Lambert gave her no assistance,
and merely walked up and down the room while waiting for her to recover.
It was not easy for her to be herself immediately, as she really was
shaken, and privately considered that he expected too much. But pride
came to her aid, and she gradually became more composed. Meanwhile
Lambert pulled up the blind to display the ugly room in all its
deformity, and the sight--as he guessed it would--extorted an
exclamation from her.

"Oh, how can you live in this horrid place?" she asked irrelevantly.

"Necessity knows no law. Are you better?"

"Yes; I am all right. But you are brutal, Noel."

"I wouldn't have been brutal to a weaker woman," he answered. "And by
acting as I have done, I show how much I think of you."

"Rather a strange way of showing approval. But your drastic methods have
triumphed. I am quite composed, and shall tell you of our disgrace in as
unemotional a manner as if I were reckoning pounds, shillings and
pence."

"Disgrace?" Lambert fastened on the one word anxiously. "To us?"

"To Garvington in the first place. But sit down and listen. I shall
tell you everything, from the moment Clara came to see me."

Lambert nodded and resumed his seat. Agnes, with wonderful coolness,
detailed Miss Greeby's visit and production of the letter. Thence she
passed on to explain how she had tricked Garvington into confession.
"But he did not confess," interrupted Lambert at this point.

"Not at the moment. He did yesterday in a letter to me. You see, he left
my house immediately and slept at his club. Then he went down to The
Manor and sent for Jane, who, by the way, knows nothing of what I have
explained. Here are two letters," added Agnes, taking an envelope out of
her pocket. "One is the forged one, and the other came from Garvington
yesterday. Even though he is not imitating my writing, you can see every
no