Isaac raised his handkerchief to his face. "I dare-say it will be known some time. At present it is enough for us that it was not Robert Hunter." "I knew a ghost could never eat salmon!" said Mrs. Macpherson, in a glow of triumph. "But what about the coat?" burst forth Mrs. Copp, as that portion of the mystery loomed into her recollection. "If that is lying unusable in the stables at the Mermaid, Robert Hunter could not have brought it with him when he came here to dinner." Clearly. And the ladies looked one at another, half inclined to plunge into war again. The meek professor, possibly afraid of it, spoke up in his mild way from behind, where he had stood and listened in silence. "Mr. Hunter's coat was to have been sent after him from Coastdown; but it did not come, and I gave him mine. He supposed it must have been lost on the road." It was the professor's wife's turn now. She could not believe her ears. Give away the other coat--when visions had crossed her mind of having that disreputable fur taken off and decent buttons put on, for his wear the following winter when he went off to the country on his ologies! "Professor! do you mean to tell me to my face that that coat is not in the lumber-closet upstairs where I put it?" "Well, my dear, I fear you'd not find it there." Away went Mrs. Macpherson to the closet, and away went the rest in her wake, anxious to see the drama played out. Isaac Thornycroft alone did not stir; and his wife came back to him. Her face was white and cold, as though she had received a shock. "Isaac! Isaac! this is frightening me. May I say what I fear?" He put his hands upon her shoulders and gazed into her eyes as she stood before him, his own full of kindness but of mourning. "Say as little as you can, my darling. I can't bear much to-night." "Cyril! It--was----" "Oh, Cyril! Cyril! could he not be saved?" His faint cry of anguish echoed hers, as he bent his aching brow momentarily upon her shoulder. "I would have given my own life to save his, Anna. I would give it still to save another the remorse and pain that lie upon him. He put on Hunter's coat that night, the other not wanting it, and was mistaken for him." "I understand," she murmured. "Oh, what a remorse it must be!" "Now you know all; but it is for your ear alone," he said, standing before her again and speaking impressively. "From henceforth let it be to us a barred subject, the only one that my dear wife may not mention to me." She looked an assent from her loving eyes, and sat down again as the company came trooping in, Mrs. Macpherson openly demanding of her husband how long it would be before he learnt common sense, and why he did not cut off his head and give _that_ away. CHAPTER XVIII. Disclosing it to Justice Thornycroft.