Giving her an icy look, he drew his arm slowly from her grasp and replied: "Mr. Mansell has never been considered guilty by me." "Never?" "Never." "Not even now?" "Not even now." It seemed as if she could not believe his words. "And yet you know all there is against him; all that I do now!" "I know he visited his aunt's house at or after the time she was murdered, but that is no proof he killed her, Miss Dare." "No," she admitted with slow conviction, "no. But why did he fly in that wild way when he left it? Why did he go straight to Buffalo and not wait to give me the interview he promised?" "Shall I tell you?" Mr. Orcutt inquired, with a dangerous sneer on his lips. "Do you wish to know why this man--the man you have so loved--the man for whom you would die this moment, has conducted himself with such marked discretion?" "Yes," came like a breath from between Imogene's parted lips. "Well," said the lawyer, dropping his words with cruel clearness, "Mr. Mansell has a great faith in women. He has such faith in you, Imogene Dare, he thinks you are all you declare yourself to be; that in the hour you stood up before the court and called yourself a murderer, you spoke but the truth; that----" He stopped; even his scornful _aplomb_ would not allow him to go on in the face of the look she wore. "Say--say those words again!" she gasped. "Let me hear them once more. He thinks what?" "That you are what you proclaimed yourself to be this day, the actual assailant and murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. He has thought so all along, Miss Dare, why, I do not know. Whether he saw any thing or heard any thing in that house from which you saw him fly so abruptly, or whether he relied solely upon the testimony of the ring, which you must remember he never acknowledged having received back from you, I only know that from the minute he heard of his aunt's death, his suspicions flew to you, and that, in despite of such suggestions as I felt it judicious to make, they have never suffered shock or been turned from their course from that day to this. _Such_ honor," concluded Mr. Orcutt, with dry sarcasm, "does the man you love show to the woman who has sacrificed for his sake all that the world holds dear." "I--I cannot believe it. You are mocking me," came inarticulately from her lips, while she drew back, step by step, till half the room lay between them. "Mocking you? Miss Dare, he has shown his feelings so palpably, I have often trembled lest the whole court should see and understand them." "You have trembled"--she could scarcely speak, the rush of her emotion was so great--"_you_ have trembled lest the whole court should see he suspected me of this crime?" "Yes."