He hurried from the room and from the house, not trusting himself with a last look at the face which had wrought this fever in his brain; rushed away through the tranquil summer night, neither knowing nor caring where he went, but wandering on by the grassy banks that followed the sinuous river, by farm and homestead, lock and weir, under the shadow of hill and wood. It was nearly three hours after midnight when the sleepy Boots admitted Mr. Hossack to the respectable family hotel, and Lucius Davoren was waiting for him, full of anxiety and even fear. ‘If I had known anything of this place, I should have come out in search of you, Geoffrey,’ he said. ‘It isn’t the kindest thing in the world to ask a man to come down here to see you, and then leave him for five mortal hours under the apprehension that you have come to an untimely end.’ Geoffrey wiped the travel stains from his forehead with a long-drawn sigh. ‘I was too downhearted to come straight home,’ he said, ‘so I went for a walk. I suppose I walked a little too far, but don’t be angry, old fellow. I’m as nearly broken-hearted as a man can be.’ ‘Did she tell you all?’ ‘Everything; a dismal story, but one that proves her to be all I have ever believed her—sinned against but sinless. And now, Lucius, can you explain how it was that your letter could influence her to do what she would have never done for my sake?’ ‘Easily. You have proved yourself a true-hearted fellow, Geoffrey, and I’ll trust you with a secret—Mrs. Bertram is my sister.’ ‘Your sister?’ cried Geoffrey, with supreme astonishment. ‘Yes, the sister whose name I have not uttered for years, but whom I have never ceased to love. My sister Janet, who left her home eight years ago under a cloud of mystery, and whose wrongs I then swore to avenge.’ ‘How long have you known this—that my Mrs. Bertram and your sister were one and the same person?’ ‘Only since I came to Stillmington to see the little girl.’ ‘Then this explains her emotion that night. Thank God! Dear old Lucius—and now, as you love her, as you love me, your friend and companion in the days of our youth—use your influence with her, persuade her to abandon all memory of that villain, to blot him out of her life as if he had never been.’ ‘I have tried that already, and failed. I thought your love might accomplish what my arguments could not achieve. I fear the case is hopeless. But my duty as a brother remains, to find this man, if possible, and ascertain for myself whether the marriage was legal or not. He may have told Janet that story of another wife out of pure malice.’ CHAPTER XV. THE BEGINNING OF A MYSTERY.