"'My dear,' said he as she rose, haggard with excitement, to meet him, 'I have brought your wraps with me that you may go directly from here to our new home. Shall I assist you to put them on? You do not look as well as usual, and that is why I have undertaken this thing all myself—to save you, my dear; to save you each and every exertion.'
"I had flung out my arms to catch her, for I thought she was going to faint, but she did not, though I think it would have been better for her if she had.
"'We are going to leave this house?' she asked, speaking very slowly and with a studied lack of emotion that imposed upon nobody.
"'I have said so,' he smiled. 'The dray has already taken away the half of our effects, and the rest will follow at Mrs. Latimer's convenience.'
"'Ah, I understand!' she replied, with a gasp of relief significant of her fear that by some superhuman cunning he had found the bond she thought so safely concealed. 'I was wondering how Mrs. Latimer came to allow us to leave.' (I tell you they always talked as if I were not present.) 'Our goods are left as a surety, it seems.'
"'Half of our goods,' he blandly corrected. 'Would it interest you to know which half?'
"'The cunning of this insinuation was matched by the imperturbable shrug with which she replied. 'So a bed has been allowed us and some clothes I am satisfied,' at which he bit his lips, vexed at her self-control and his own failure to break it.
"'You have not asked where we are going,' he observed as with apparent solicitude he threw her mantle over her shoulders.
"The air of lassitude with which she replied bespoke her feeling on that point. 'I have little curiosity,' she said. 'You know I can be happy anywhere. And, turning toward me, she moved her lips in a way I interpreted to mean: 'Go below with me. See me out.'
"'Say what you have to say to Miss Winter-burn aloud,' he dryly suggested.