“I hope there will be no discovery as to Paten's real name. It would so certainly revive the old scandal.”
“We can scarcely expect such good luck as that, Loo. There is but one thing to do, dear; we must put the sea between us and our calumniators.”
“How did O'Shea come by the letters if he had no hand in it?”
“Perhaps he had; perhaps it was a concerted thing; perhaps he bought up the letters from Collier afterwards. Is it of the least consequence to us how he got them?”
“Yes, Collier might have read them,” said she, in a hollow voice; and as Holmes, startled by the tones, turned round, he saw that she had a sickening faintness over her, and that she trembled violently.
“Where's your old courage, Loo?” said he, cheeringly. “Paten is gone, Collier has a good chance of being sent after him, and here we are, almost the only actors left of the whole drama.”
“That's true, papa, very true; and as we shall have to play in the afterpiece, the sooner we get the tragedy out of our heads the better.”
They remounted the carriage, and went on their way. There, where the beech-trees bend across the road, it is there they have just disappeared! The brisk tramp of the pony can be heard even yet; it grows fainter and fainter, and only the light train of dust now marks their passage. They are gone; and we are to see them no more!