Mary handed the bracelet to Julia, and then remained passive.
A dead silence fell upon them all, and a sort of horror crept over Mary Bartley at what must follow; but come what might, no power should induce her to say the word that should send Walter Clifford to jail for seven years.
Bartley came to her; she trembled, and her hands worked.
"What are you saying, you fool?" he whispered. "The lady that left the bracelet was there with a gentleman."
Mary winced.
Then Bartley said, sternly, "Who was your companion?"
"I must not say."
"You will say one thing," said Bartley, "or I shall have no mercy on you.
Are you secretly married?"
Then a single word flashed across Mary's almost distracted mind—SELF-SACRIFICE. She held her tongue.
"Can't you speak? Are you a wife?" He now began to speak so loud in his anger that everybody heard it.