It did not so much suggest surprise as the indefinable relief which a man feels when accident permits him to express cognizance of some fact of which he has long been inwardly assured. "I knew that long ago," he said at last. "I suspected it when I first saw the girl; but I said nothing to you at the time; perhaps I was wrong. Afterwards, when we knew each other better, there seemed no occasion; I had almost forgotten the episode." "Yes," went on the other faintly; "we have all made mistakes--I more than most folk, perhaps." Then he asked suddenly: "Had you any motive, any reason for your suspicion?" "It was the name Crichton--the man's pseudonym on the _Outcry_. It flashed across me then that she was after Lightmark. He was just severing his connection with the paper. He had always kept it very close, and I dare say I was one of the few persons who were in the secret. That is why, at the bottom of his heart, he is afraid of me--afraid that I shall bring it up. It's the one thing he is ashamed of." "I see, I see," cried Rainham wearily; "the wretched fellow!" "Dear man, why should we think of him?" broke in Oswyn; "he isn't worth it. Now of all seasons can't we find a topic less unsavoury?" "You don't understand," continued Rainham, after a slight pause in his thin, far-away voice. "I am not thinking of him, or only indirectly. I have found him out, and I should be content enough to forget him if it were possible. Only, unfortunately, he happens to be inextricably entangled with all that is most sacred, most important to me. It is of his wife--Mrs. Lightmark: do you know her?--that I think." Oswyn shook his head. "I know her only by sight, as we all do; she is very beautiful." "I don't mind telling you that I have considered her a great deal--yes, immensely. I should not speak of it--of her--unless I were dying; but, after all, when one is dying, there are things one may say. I have held my peace so long. And since I have been lying here I have had time to ponder it, to have thought it all out. It seems to me that simply for her sake someone should know before--before the occasion passes--just the plain truth. Of course, Sylvester by rights ought to be the man, only I can't ask him to come to me--there are reasons; and, besides, he is an ass." "Yes, he is an ass," admitted Oswyn simply; "that is reason enough."