'I'll warrant I can give you evidence against myself which you hadn't discovered,' Rolfe went on--'awful and unanswerable evidence. It is I who support those children, and pay for their education!--it is I, and no other. See your darkest suspicion confirmed. If only you had known this for certain!' 'Why, then, do you do it?' asked Alma, without raising her eyes. 'For a very foolish reason: there was no one else who could or would.' 'And why did you keep it a secret from me?' 'This is the blackest part of the whole gloomy affair,' he answered, with burlesque gravity. 'It's in the depraved nature of men to keep secrets from their wives, especially about money. To tell the truth, I'm hanged if I know why I didn't tell you before our marriage. The infamous step was taken not very long before, and I might as well have made a clean breast of it. Has Mrs. Abbott never spoken to you about her cousin, Wager's wife?' 'A word or two.' 'Which you took for artful fiction? You imagined she had plotted with me to deceive you? What, in the name of commonsense, is your estimate of Mrs. Abbott's character?' Alma drew a deep breath, and looked up into her husband's face. 'Still--she knew you were keeping it from me, about the money.' 'She had no suspicion of it. She always wrote to me openly, acknowledging the cheques. Would it gratify you to look through her letters?' 'I believe you.' 'Not quite, I fancy. Look at me again and say it.' He raised her head gently. 'Yes, I believe you--it was very silly.' 'It was. The only piece of downright feminine foolishness I ever knew you guilty of. But when did it begin?' Alma had become strangely quiet. She spoke in a low, tired voice, and sat with head turned aside, resting against the back of the chair; her face was expressionless, her eyelids drooped. Rolfe had to repeat his question. 'I hardly know,' she replied. 'It must have been when my illness was coming on.' 'So I should think. It was sheer frenzy. And now that it's over, have you still any prejudice against Mrs. Abbott?' 'No.' The syllable fell idly from her lips. 'You are tired, dear. All this sound and fury has been too much for you. Lie down on the sofa till dinner-time.' She allowed him to lead her across the room, and lay down as he wished. To his kiss upon her forehead she made no response, but closed her eyes and was very still. Harvey seated himself at his desk, and opened two or three unimportant letters which had arrived this morning. To one of them he wrote an answer. Turning presently to glance at Alma, he saw that she had not stirred, and when he leaned towards her, the sound of her breathing told him that she was asleep. He meditated on Woman.