At last Edgar and Geoffrey went out and then Gerard seemed to wake up as if out of a dream, and to realise that he was alone with his uncle, who evidently wanted to get rid of him, for he fidgeted, and looked at his watch, not liking to leave the presumably disconsolate young husband by himself, yet anxious to take up the occupation upon which he was engaged. Gerard rose quickly, stammered an incoherent apology, not with any appearance of dismay or despair, but quietly and conventionally, and then went out of the room. The viscount was puzzled by his behaviour, but was, on the whole, thankful that these painful disclosures had passed off so quietly. When the family reassembled at dinner, however, Gerard was absent, and inquiries elicited the fact that he had left the house almost immediately after coming out of the study. Lord Clanfield looked uneasily at his sons. Geoffrey nodded astutely. “Gone to have it out with her, you bet!” he muttered to his brother. Lord Clanfield caught the whisper. “It’s very unfortunate. We ought to have foreseen----” he muttered uneasily. But Geoffrey shrugged his shoulders, and said in a low voice:-- “Better that he should know all, and have done with her, sir! After all, it had to come. And it’s less disgrace to the family to break with her than for the present condition of things to become known and talked about.” “Perhaps, but it’s confoundedly unpleasant!” said Lord Clanfield, with a frown. CHAPTER XIX Audrey, meanwhile, had been passing an uneasy time since the terrible scene at the showrooms. When, later in the same day, she had made the important discovery that Mademoiselle Laure was really Mr. Candover’s sister, her first impulse was to challenge the woman, and to accuse her of being a party to the plot which had been laid for herself. But that day’s experience had taught her wisdom, and she reflected in time that nothing was to be gained, while much might be risked, by a want of prudence and caution. Had she not just found that out to her cost? For what was the result of her well-meant and bold attempt to open the eyes of the men who had been robbed of their money at “The Briars”? Mr. Candover had been artful enough to turn her accusation back upon herself, and all the men present had gone away, so she believed, thoroughly convinced that she was a particularly cunning adventuress, and that Mr. Candover was an honourable man whom she had insulted! This latest discovery--for that Laure was the wicked sister of whom Mr. Candover’s ill-treated wife had spoken she had no doubt--had frightened Audrey more than all the rest. There was something more uncanny about the near neighbourhood of an unprincipled and unscrupulous woman than that of a man of the same class; and Audrey shivered at the thought that Laure was her enemy too.