"So she did," admitted Gerald quickly. "Mrs. Crosbie would have been arrested as an accomplice after the fact, and in any case would have sunk into poverty without her mother to help her. Mrs. Berch of course thought she would be hanged, although, seeing how she swore that the crime was accidental, extenuating circumstances might have been found. I suppose Mrs. Berch, who was frantically fond of her daughter, thought it best they should go together. Madge certainly would have lived, poor soul, in spite of all her misery, as she loved life. But Mrs. Berch pulled her down, and they are buried in Leegarth cemetery----" "Beside Bellaria!" said Mavis, with a shiver. "How strange." "The punishment of providence, my dear," said Mrs. Pelham Odin rebukingly. "The murderess was laid beside her victim. A wicked woman----" "No," said Gerald, throwing up his hand. "Don't call her that." "But she murdered----" "I believe that the crime really was committed accidentally. And as she and poor Madge have paid for their sins let us leave them to God, Mrs. Pelham Odin. Who are we to judge, and, as was revealed at the inquest, those two women had suffered much misery and trouble." "I wonder how they managed to deceive the tradesmen for so long," said the old actress musingly. "I am sure my tradesmen always make me pay every month. But look at the thousands they owed and----" "It would all have been paid had Mrs. Crosbie married the Major." "I daresay--with Mavis' six thousand a year." "I have only three thousand," said Mrs. Haskins: "Charity has the rest." Mrs. Pelham Odin kissed the girl's forehead. "You behaved in a noble way, my dear. I hear that Lady Euphemia has quite taken to Charity, now that she knows her father was a Devonshire Durham. And Tod has got back his ruined castle to play the laird. He says, however, that he is coming back from Scotland to work again at the law." "And quite right he is," said Gerald, sitting down. "I don't believe in any man being lazy. Lady Euphemia wants Tod to play the laird on his wife's money, but Tod has too much respect to live on his wife." "I know _you_ have," said Mavis, looking at him fondly. "You don't know how difficult it is to make him take money," she added, turning to the actress, "he will live on his own income, and works like a nigger." "Not like Geary, if he is the nigger in question. My dear Mavis, this house is yours, and I----" "You're going to say that you are a boarder. Stop!" And Mavis laid a pretty hand over his mouth. Gerald kissed it. "You are both extremely silly," said Mrs. Pelham Odin, "share and share alike--money and love and sentiments and everything." "Right," said Haskins playfully, "Mavis, darling, give me back that kiss." "I came here," said Mrs. Pelham Odin, in her most dignified way, "to welcome you back from the Continent, so I must be attended to, and you _did_ leave England after the trial without seeing me."