In the first place, she would not be browbeaten by Mr. Candover into silence about the gambling that was carried on, or the cheating which accompanied it. In the second place, she would no longer allow herself to be used as a decoy by this man, who, if half what her late visitor had said should prove to be true, was no better than a swindler. She would therefore at once give up, not only the dubious title chosen for her by him or by Mademoiselle Laure, but the business run under that name. She thought, since she had put her own money into the venture, and had therefore a right to get some at least of it back, that she would see Mademoiselle Laure, and find out whether that astute Frenchwoman were willing to buy her out, giving Audrey a small sum for her interest. Unfortunately, Mr. Candover had conducted the negotiations with the help of his own solicitor, and the contracts and papers connected with the sale were in his hands. And Audrey suddenly asked herself, as she sat back on the floor in the midst of her work, whether she might not find, on investigation, that there had been trickery on his part in this matter, as there appeared to be in everything with which he had to do. And she rose to her feet with a low cry, as the thought flashed into her mind that perhaps this rich, disinterested Mr. Candover, whom she and Gerard had both liked and trusted so much, was connected with her husband’s misfortunes as well as with her own. But this thought she would not have dared to put into words. Once in her mind, however, it stayed there with terrible persistency, till Audrey’s brain reeled, and she asked herself whether her best course would not be to go to the solicitor, the very solicitor who had offended her so much by believing Gerard guilty. And then, as she came to what she was sure was a sensible decision, that she would go to him, and put up with his dry manner and his penetrating questions, it flashed upon her that, instead of taking her part against Mr. Candover and expressing a readiness to investigate his conduct, the solicitor might perhaps be more inclined to investigate hers! For she, poor child, in her friendless and lonely condition after Gerard’s going away, had let herself drift entirely into the ways suggested by Mr. Candover, had gone with him to his solicitor instead of consulting her husband’s, to arrange the lease of the showrooms, had, indeed, put herself as completely into his hands, in her ignorance and desolation, as if she had been a child and he her natural guardian.