Part of his evidence was true, for he had been in the drawing-room, he had seen Mrs. Belswin enter the study, but here his truth ceased and his lies began. Fearing lest his name should be mentioned by the infuriated woman during the interview, which would be sure to end in the discomfiture of Mrs. Belswin the lawyer, trembling for his respectable position, went to his bedroom and took his air-pistol, so as to be prepared for emergencies. It is but fair to Mr. Dombrain to say that he had no intention of using the weapon unless everything was lost; so, creeping out of the house, he placed himself beside the open window of the study, in order to hear what Mrs. Belswin would say. In accordance with his expectations, she did tell Sir Rupert all about him, and when Dombrain heard the declaration of the baronet that he would denounce him, he knew that all was lost, and that the sin of his early youth was going to cost him the respectable position of his middle age. When Mrs. Belswin, thrust forth by her unforgiving husband, fled out into the night, Dombrain, trembling, sick at heart at seeing all that made his life worth living vanish, crouched still beside the window, and here Sir Rupert, who had come out to make sure that his divorced wife had taken herself off, found him. Then an interview between the lawyer and the baronet took place, in which the latter swore to reveal all the infamy of Dombrain, and have him struck off the rolls. In vain the wretched man pleaded for mercy. Coldly and inflexibly the baronet thrust him out of doors, the same way he had done his wife; and then mad with anger at the terrible future before him, Dombrain shot Sir Rupert, in the manner described by Belk in the witness-box. After committing the crime and assuring himself that his victim was dead, he coolly stepped across the body, and took refuge in his own room, from whence he did not emerge for the rest of the night. It was true, as he said, that his room was near the head of the staircase, for he saw Mrs. Belswin leave the study as he described, so it was then that the idea came into his head to secure himself by sacrificing her, and thus both save and revenge himself at one time. On leaving the court after having been denounced by Belk, his rage against all the world for his thwarted revenge and his perilous position knew no bounds. He had no idea of escaping justice, but determined before he was seized to punish the woman who had--as he believed--dragged him down even lower than his former position. Then he had simply embezzled money, but now he had committed a crime for which he would lose his life; and thus, seeing that his doom was fixed, he determined that Mrs. Belswin should suffer for placing him in such a perilous position.