He said this with a mocking laugh, and then changed his position impatiently in the cab, growing, in spite of his words, more excited every moment. "How could Huish know?" he said, gnawing his nails. "Impossible; and, besides, he is too good and tried a friend. Suppose he did drop in, what then? Why, he is wiser than I: he prefers the society of a sweet good little woman to that of a set of painted animals, who have not a scrap of reputation big enough to make a bow for their false hair." "There, I've been tricked," he exclaimed, as the cab turned down out of Knightsbridge and he neared Chesham Place. "Never mind; I'll forgive him for fooling me, and I'll try to leave all this wretched, stupid life behind. We'll go abroad for a bit; or, no, we'll go yachting--there'll be no temptations there. I'm going to begin afresh. We'll have a new honeymoon, Renee, my little girl. But--but--if that fellow's words were true!" The gas-lamps seemed to spin round as he stopped the cab, and he leapt out to hastily thrust some money in the drivers hand, and then walked sharply down the Place till he came opposite his own house. "Curse it--it can't be so!" he groaned, as he saw the dimly-lit drawing-room. "If it were true, I should go mad or go to the bad altogether. I won't believe it. Malpas, old fellow, I beg your pardon," he muttered. "Renee, my child, if heaven will give me strength, I'll confess to you like an honest man that I've been a fool and an idiot, and ask you to forgive me." "Yes, and she'll forgive me without a word," he said, as he opened the door, quickly threw off hat and coat, and ran up the great stone staircase three steps at a time, then, trying to control the agitation that made his heart beat so heavily against his side, he threw open the door, closed it hastily, and walked across the faintly-lit room into the next, where he could see into the little boudoir with its bright furniture, flowers, and graceful hanging-lamp, which shed a softened light through the place. The next instant he had entered, and was standing there face to face with his wife, who with flushed face stood trembling before him, supporting herself by-one hand upon the chimney-piece. "Renee," he cried, turning white with rage, as his worst suspicions seemed confirmed, "what does this mean?" "Frank, Frank!" stretching out her hands towards him as she tottered a couple of steps and then reeled and would have fallen, but he caught her and swung her round on to the couch, where he laid her, and stood gazing down for a few moments. Then, looking dazed, and trembling in every limb, he turned round, his eyes rested on the curtains which shut off the little conservatory, and with two strides he reached them, tore them aside, and then started away.