"You mean to say you have put yourself into that fellow's power?" he exclaimed. "Not willingly! Oh, not willingly! I meant only kindness to him. Yes, I have been weak, I know, and so foolish! It has gone on so long.--You remember when I first saw him, at Ewell? I liked him, just as a friend. Of course I behaved foolishly. It was my miserable life--you know what my life was. But nothing happened--I mean, I never thought of him for a moment as anything but an ordinary friend--until I had my legacy." The look on the listener's face checked her. "I begin to understand," said Piers, with bitterness. "No, no! Don't say that--don't speak like that!" "It's not you I am thinking of, Mrs. Hannaford. As soon as money comes in--. But tell me plainly. I have perfect confidence in what you say, indeed I have." "It does me good to hear you say that! I can tell you all, now that I have begun. It is true, he _did_ ask me to go away with him, again and again. But he had no right to do that--I was foolish in showing that I liked him. Again and again I forbade him ever to see me; I tried so hard to break off! It was no use. He always wrote, wherever I was, sending his letters to Dr. Derwent to be forwarded. He made me meet him at all sorts of places--using threats at last. Oh, what I have gone through!" "No doubt," said Piers gently, "you have lent him money?" She reddened again; her head sank. "Yes--I have lent him money, when he was in need. Just before the death of your father." "Once only?" "Once--or twice----" "To be sure. Lately, too, I daresay?" "Yes----" "Then you quite understand his character?" "I do now," Mrs. Hannaford replied wretchedly. "But I must tell you more. If it were only a suspicion of my husband's I should hardly care at all. But someone must have betrayed me to him, and have told deliberate falsehoods. I am accused--it was when I was at the seaside once--and he came to the same hotel--Oh, the shame, the shame!" She covered her face with her hands, and turned away. "Why," cried Piers, in wrath, "that fellow is quite capable of having betrayed you himself. I mean, of lying about you for his own purposes." "You think he could be so wicked?" "I don't doubt it for a moment. He has done his best to persuade you to ruin yourself for him, and he thinks, no doubt, that if you are divorced, nothing will stand between him and you--in other words, your money." "He said, when I saw him yesterday, that now it had come to this, I had better take that step at once. And when I spoke of my innocence, he asked who would believe it? He seemed sorry; really he did. Perhaps he is not so bad as one fears?" "Where did you see him yesterday?" asked Otway. "At his lodgings. I was _obliged_ to go and see him as soon as possible. I have never been there before. He behaved very kindly. He said of course he should declare my innocence----" "And in the same breath assured you no one would believe it? And advised you to go off with him at once?"