“‘A man who could try to rob a poor silly boy by such disgraceful means,’ I continued, ‘could bardly be expected to have any pity on a helpless woman; but, fortunately, I have been a witness of your endeavours on more than one occasion, by threats and menaces, to extort a large sum of money from your host’s wife, and that by representing to her that her first husband was alive, and at Otago, New Zealand, when you knew as well as I do that he was dead, and has been so these two years.’
“‘He is not dead,’ growled Murray.
“‘He is dead,’ I replied, ‘and your own pocket-book proves it.’
“As I said this, I held up to him the wallet that I had tumbled upon in the plantation walk, in one of the pockets of which, among a number of other exceedingly suspicious-looking documents, I had found a certificate of the death of Arthur Bernard.
“But as I have been a very long time in telling my story—barristers are proverbially long-winded, you know—I must hurry to a conclusion.
“The morning following our interview, Murray, with many excuses and regrets, found himself unavoidably compelled to return to town.
“As he got into the phaeton that was to take him to the station he kindly whispered in my ear, ‘I’ll live to pay you out for this yet!’ a promise that I somehow or other fancy he will fulfil some day. Till then I am content to forget all about him.
“As for Mrs. Forrester, the clouds upon her horizon have lifted; she has buried a sad and painful past, and lives in a present, loved as dearly and tenderly as ever by Charlie, who knows nothing, and who never shall, unless she, as I have advised her, has the courage to tell him all, even to the extent that her first husband, Arthur Bernard, was the co-conspirator who stood at Murray’s side in the felon’s dock.
“I have every hope that she will do this, for the confidence between husband and wife should be as clear as the day at noon.”
“Well, Mr. Tangle,” said Lord Chetwynd, when the barrister had brought his narrative to an end, “it is a most interesting story of real life, and I expect you gentlemen of the long robe are the possessors of secrets of a similar character, which, in many cases, you are, for various reasons, not permitted to divulge.”