“She feels intense pity for _you_,” he said, laying a strong emphasis on the pronoun. Mrs. Barnard looked wonderingly at him, and a flush dyed her face. “What does that mean? Has she no pity for poor Howard, who gratified her every whim, and spoiled her from the day she entered the house? I will not believe it of her. He has been weak, but not criminal, Jasper.” And then Jasper raised his voice in righteous wrath. “My poor sister, you little knew, I have only known for the last few hours, that this brother of ours has been leading a double life. He is one of the biggest criminals that ever walked the face of the earth.” Mrs. Barnard’s face froze into a look of horror. If any other man had spoken those awful words, she would have told him he lied. But she knew Jasper’s character too well. He would not have made such a charge if it were not true. As briefly as possible he told her what he knew, through that chance opening of the letter to Zillah Mayhew by Lydon. The unhappy woman burst into a passionate fit of weeping. “Jasper, you must take me away with you when you leave,” she said when she had recovered herself a little. “I could not stay another night under the roof after what you have told me. The associate of thieves, blackmailers, a potential murderer himself. It is like some hideous nightmare.” And at that moment Howard Stormont walked into the room, with a smile of welcome on his harassed countenance. Perhaps he thought his brother had come to help him in his financial difficulties. But as he took in the scene, the still weeping woman, Jasper standing beside her with a hard and inflexible look upon his face, he knew that the visit portended nothing of the kind. He looked from one to the other and his own face grew paler as he noted his sister’s averted countenance. “What the devil does all this mean? And you, Jasper, why do you refuse to take my hand?” he cried in a harsh voice that showed traces of fear. At a sign from her brother, Mrs. Barnard withdrew, and the two men were left alone--Jasper stern, rigid; Howard with terrible forebodings in his guilty soul. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Howard was the first to break the strained silence; he spoke in a toneless voice. “I Suppose you will presently tell me what all this means, the reason of this extraordinary attitude. I suppose you have been talking over the state of affairs with Maud, and are angry with me for having made such a muddle of things. You will stay to dinner, of course?” Swiftly came the reply: “If I would not take your hand, is it likely I would accept your hospitality? I hope never to see you, nor set foot in this house of evil, again. Howard Stormont, I know you for what you are; I know the double life you have been leading since you left England and since you returned to it. I know you to be the associate of criminals, yourself not the least criminal amongst them.”