Evening came: Tuesday evening, please remember. Mr. Grubb did not come home: neither had Adela heard from him: she supposed him to be still at Blackheath, and sat down to dinner alone. She wondered whither Charley had betaken himself off on his release: and whether he would be likely to call upon her. She hoped not: her cheeks would take a tinge of shame at facing him. Suppose he were to come in that evening! Charley did not come. But Frances Chenevix did. Frances, very downright, very outspoken, had been honestly indignant with Adela for the part she had played, she had not scrupled to tell her so, and they had quarrelled. Therefore Adela was not much pleased to see her. She found that Frances had been dining at home, and had ordered the carriage round here on her way back to Lady Sarah Hope's. It was about nine o'clock. "Is your husband at home?" she inquired of Adela, without any circumlocution, when she entered the drawing-room. "No. He has not been home since yesterday morning. I expect he is at Blackheath with that wavering old mother of his, dying today and well tomorrow," listlessly added Adela. "Had he been at home I should have sent him round to the mother and Grace; they are so frightfully uneasy." "The mother?" repeated Adela. "Is she back already from the Dunfords'?" "She has not been to the Dunfords'," said Frances. "I suppose you know of the dreadful turn affairs have taken with Charles Cleveland?" Something like a drop of iced water seemed to trickle down Adela's back. "I know nothing--I have heard nothing," she gasped. "Is Charles not set at liberty?" "Good gracious, no! And he is not going to be. The city magistrates won't do it; they will commit him for trial." It was as if a whole pailful of cold water were pouring down now. "Oh, Frances, it cannot be true!" "It is too true. Mr. Howard wrote this afternoon to tell papa that Charles was remanded back to prison, and would be committed in the morning. Papa went off at once to see about it, and mamma sent an excuse to the Dunfords. I was to have dined quietly with Grace and Mary this evening; and I heard all this when I arrived." "And--is papa not back yet?" again gasped Adela. "No; and mamma can hardly contain herself for uneasiness. For, of course, you see what this implies?" Adela was not sure whether she saw it or not. She only gazed at her sister. "It means that either Charles must suffer, or you, Adela, so far as can be gathered from present aspects. And the question at home is--can they allow him to suffer, even if he be willing, and the truth does not transpire in other ways?" "To--suffer?" hesitated Adela. "To stand his trial." "Why does not Mr. Grubb stop all this?" angrily flashed Adela, in her sick tremor.