“Oh!” said Nettie sharply, and sat still, wondering what meaning she was to attach to this since she had never heard of Lucy Davidson, until her companion leaned forward a trifle. “I have told nobody else, but it was not Bernard Appleby who came to meet me at Northrop lodge,” she said. Nettie’s gasp of astonishment was perfectly genuine this time, for though the story Appleby had told her had been very vague in respect to the part played by Lucy Davidson she had been able to supply the deficiencies in it, and she was sure of her companion now. “And you let them think—how could you?” she said with flashing eyes. Miss Clavier was evidently almost as astonished as her listener, but she had committed herself. “It was too late to do any good by speaking when I heard they suspected him—and I was just a little fond of Tony once,” she said. “Of course, he wasn’t worth it—he never was—and that’s why I tried to warn you. You made me feel you wanted to be kind to me.” Nettie laughed a little, almost scornfully. “Now, I don’t know if that was nice of you. If you only meant to punish Mr. Palliser it wasn’t.” Miss Clavier’s face was faintly flushed all over now, but she regarded her companion steadily. “I don’t quite know why I did it—but it wasn’t altogether to make Tony smart,” she said. “It was, at least, a little because I seemed to feel you were too good for him. Oh, I know I have done a good deal of harm—and it’s a change to do the other thing now and then. I don’t want Tony. Any one can have him and welcome—they’ll get a very poor bargain, and I wouldn’t like you to think I meant to pluck him—though that would have been easy.” “No,” said Nettie, “I did not think that of you. What did you mean to do with him?” “I don’t know. To amuse myself by watching him wriggle, I think. It was nice to feel I could frighten him horribly. If you had been like the rest, and he had only shown me a little kindness, I fancy I would have let him go. But he couldn’t do the right thing if it would cost him a trifle—he hasn’t it in him; and he made me believe you meant to marry him.” “No,” said Nettie, with a faint ring in her voice. “The man I’m going to marry is worth—several hundred Tony Pallisers. Still, I’m glad you told me, and you’ll tell me the rest of the story.” Miss Clavier sat still for at least a minute, and then obeying an impulse told her tale. Her voice was also a little strained as she said, “Clavier was bad—bad all through—and he left me before he died in Melbourne; but though my father never knew it I was married to him all the time. I found the—‘Madame’—a disadvantage.” Then there was silence until a burst of applause greeted the conclusion of the song; and while the two sat in the shadows Nettie Harding laid her hand sympathetically on her companion’s arm. XX — FOUND GUILTY