"Yes. Wilbraham had known Ralph at Gibraltar, had seen the Ten Brothers, very likely had been aboard of her. That was why the look of the Tarifa was familiar to him. When you told him the Tarifa was a Salcombe boat he understood why it was familiar. It was the merest clue; but he followed it up and found out."
"And blackmailed you!" continued Charnock.
He turned back to the writing-table and the window. Again his fingers played idly with the newspaper. For a while he was silent; then he said slowly, "Do you remember what you said to me on the balcony? That no man could offer a woman help without doing her a hurt in some other way."
"I spoke idly," interrupted Miranda.
"You spoke very truly, for here's the proof."
"I spoke to elude you," said Miranda, stubbornly. "It was a mere idle fancy which came into my head, and the next moment was forgotten."
"But I remembered it," cried Charnock. "It was more true than you thought."
"It was no more true than"--she hesitated. However, Charnock was not looking at her; she found it possible to proceed--"than another belief which led me astray, as this one is leading you."
"What other belief?"
Miranda nerved herself to answer him. "That no man would serve a woman well, except for--for the one reason."