"And are you always alone when Mrs. Brokenshire comes?" "Oh no, sir!" I made the tone as natural as I could. "But Mrs. Brokenshire doesn't seem to mind. Yesterday, for instance--" "Was she here yesterday? I thought she came on--" I broke in before he could betray himself further. "Yes, she was here yesterday; and there was--let me see!--there was an old gentleman comparing his Japanese prints with Mr. Grainger's, and a middle-aged lady who comes to study the old editions of Shakespeare. But Mrs. Brokenshire didn't object to them. She sat with me and had a cup of tea." I knew I had come to dangerous ground, and was ready for my part in the adventure. Had he asked the question: "Was there anybody else?" I was resolved, in the spirit of my maxim, to tell the truth as harmlessly as I knew how. But I didn't think he would ask it. I reckoned on his unwillingness to take me into his confidence or to humiliate himself more than he could help. That he guessed at something behind my words I could easily suspect; but I was so sure he would have torn out his tongue rather than force his pride to cross-examine me too closely, that I was able to run my risk. As a matter of fact, he became pensive, and through the gloom of the half-lighted room I could see that his face was contorted twice, still with no effort on his part to hide his misfortune. As he took the time to think I could do the same, with a kind of intuition in following the course of his meditations. I was not surprised, therefore, when he said, with renewed thickness of utterance: "Has Mrs. Brokenshire any--any other motive in coming here than just--just to see you?" I hung my head, perhaps with a touch of that play-acting spirit which most women are able to command, when the time comes. "Yes, sir." He waited again. I never heard such overtones of despair as were in the three words which at last he tried to toss off easily. "What is it?" I still hung my head. "She brings me money for poor Hugh." He started back, whether from anger or relief I couldn't tell, and his face twitched for the fourth time. In the end, I suppose, he decided that anger was the card he could play most skilfully. "So that that's what enables him to keep up his rebellion against me!"