She stretched her hands out imploringly to her lover. “Richard, you are no thief, nothing shall ever convince me of it,” she cried in a voice of agony. “Deny it, deny it to us both. Say something that will persuade him of the falseness of the accusation, of the injustice he is doing you.” The miserable young man was hardly less moved than herself. “I have denied it, Rosabelle; I have offered to swear it, to take any oath he may dictate to me. But he refuses to believe either word or oath. I can do no more. Thank heaven, black as appearances are, you believe that I am an honest man.” “Oh yes, oh yes,” she cried brokenly. “I do not care a straw for appearances, if they were twice as strong against you as they are. I know you so well, my heart tells me that you have not done this horrible thing.” And then Morrice delivered his sentence. Incensed as he was at what he considered the obstinacy of Croxton, he could not fail to be moved by the girl’s passionate vindication of her lover. “Richard Croxton, needless to say that from this day forth we are strangers; my house can no longer give you shelter. For the sake of one whose memory I shall always revere, I shall take no steps. Nobody but Rosabelle and my wife will know the real reasons of your departure. I am now going to the city to get money to replace that which has been stolen. I shall go there and return here as quickly as possible. I have no heart for any other business to-day. When I return, let me find you gone. Later on I will invent some plausible explanation of the severance of our relations, and give it out to those who are interested.” He turned on his heel without vouchsafing another glance at the miserable man upon whom, up to the present, he had lavished kindness and affection, strode through the hall, and a minute later he had left the house. The two wretched lovers were left alone, and when the door had closed, the poor girl broke down, and threw herself into Richard’s arms, sobbing bitterly. CHAPTER IV GIDEON LANE TAKES A HAND “What an awful day!” she cried when Richard had calmed her a little, not that he was in much of a mood to administer consolation to others. “And last night, when we talked of our future, and I told you to pluck up your courage, I felt so gay and light-hearted. Oh, Dick dear, it will kill me; but no, I must not let it do that. We must both be brave, and strain every nerve to prove your innocence.” “It is indeed a tragic day,” corroborated her lover. “And, my darling, but for this inexplicable mystery, it would all have been such plain-sailing. In the midst of his reproaches, he paused to tell me that he knew of our love for each other, and that he would have put no obstacles in the way.”