Both kept silence. Sibyl had become very grave, and was thinking intently. Then, with a few brief questions, vigilant, precise, she learnt all that had taken place between Hugh and Mrs. Maskell, between Hugh and the doctor; heard of the woman's disappearance, and of Mrs Fenimore's arrival on the scene. 'What shall you do now?' 'Go back and give myself up. What else _can_ I do?' 'And tell everything--as you have told it to me?' Hugh met her eyes and moved his arms in a gesture of misery. 'No! I will think of something. He is dead, and can't contradict; and the woman will hide--trust her. Your name shan't come into it at all. I owe you that, Sibyl. I'll find some cause for a quarrel with him. Your name shan't be spoken.' She listened, her eyes down, her forehead lined in thought. 'I know what!' Hugh exclaimed, with gloomy resolve. 'That woman--of course, there'll be a mystery, and she'll be searched for. Why'--he blustered against his shame--'why shouldn't she be the cause of it? Yes, that would do.' His hoarse laugh caused a tremor in Sibyl; she rose and stepped close to him, and laid a hand upon his shoulder. 'So far you have advised yourself. Will you let me advise you now, dear?' 'Wouldn't that seem likely?' 'I think not. And if it _did_--what is the result? You will be dealt with much more severely. Don't you see that?' 'What's that to me? What do I care so long as you are out of the vile business? You will have no difficulties. Your mother's money; and then Mackintosh----' 'And is that all?' asked Sibyl, with a look which seemed to wonder profoundly. 'Am I to think only of my own safety?' 'It's all my cursed fault--just because I'm a fierce, strong brute, who ought to be anywhere but among civilised people. I've killed the man who meant me nothing but kindness. Am I going to drag _your_ name into the mud--to set people grinning and winking----' 'Be quiet, Hugh, and listen. I have a much clearer head than yours, poor boy. There's only one way of facing this scandal, and that is to tell everything. For one thing, I shall not let you shield that woman--we shall catch her yet. I shall not let you disgrace yourself by inventing squalid stories. Don't you see, too, that the disgrace would be shared by--by the dead man? Would that be right? And another thing--if shame comes upon you, do you think I have no part in it? We have to face it out with the truth.' 'You don't know what that means,' he answered, with a groan. 'You don't know the world.' Sibyl did not smile, but her lips seemed only to check themselves when the smile was half born.