And now, after this interval, his obsession had swooped upon him again. It was an obsession of hate--which simply could not endure, when it came to the point, that Rachel Henderson should vanish unscathed into the future of a happy marriage, while he remained the doomed failure and outcast he knew himself to be. Rachel's implied confession rankled in him like a burn. _Tanner!_--that wretched weakling, with his miserable daubs that nobody wanted to buy. So Rachel had gone to him, as soon as she had driven her husband away, no doubt to complain of her ill-treatment, to air her woes. The fellow had philandered round her some time, and had shown an insolent and interfering temper once or twice towards himself. Yes!--he could imagine it all!--her flight, and Tanner's maudlin sympathy--tears--caresses--the natural sequel. And then her pose of complete innocence at the divorce proceedings--the Judge's remarks. Revolting hypocrisy! If Tanner had been still alive, he would somehow have exposed him--somehow have made him pay. Lucky for him he was drowned in that boat accident on Lake Nipissing! And no doubt Rachel thought that the accident had made everything safe for her. Every incident now, every phase of his conversation with her was assuming a monstrous and distorted significance in his mind. How easily she had yielded on the subject of the money! He might have asked a great deal more--and he would have got it. Very likely Ellesborough was well off--Yankees generally were--and she knew that what she gave Delane as hush money would make very little difference to her. Ellesborough no doubt would not look very closely into her shekels, having sufficient of his own. Otherwise it might occur to him to wonder how she had got rid of that £500. Would it pinch her? Probably, if all she had for capital was the old chap's legacy. Well--serve her right--serve her, damned, doubly right! Ellesborough's kisses would make up. These thoughts, after a momentary respite, held him in their grip as he walked London streets. Suspicion of the past--ugly and venomous--flapped its black wings about him. Had Rachel ever been faithful to him--even in the early days? She had made acquaintance with the Tanners very soon after their marriage. Looking back, a number of small incidents and scenes poked their heads out of the dead level of the past. Rachel and Tanner, discussing the Watts photograph when Rachel first acquired it--Tanner's eager denunciatory talk--he called himself an "impressionist"--the creature!--because he couldn't draw worth a cent--Rachel all smiles and deference. She had never given _him_ that sort of attention. Or Rachel at a housewarming in the next farm to his--Rachel in a pale green dress, the handsomest woman there, dancing with Tanner--Rachel quarrelling with him in the buggy on the way home, because he called Tanner a milksop--"He cares for beautiful things, and you don't!--but that's no reason why you should abuse him."