"Her husband? Does he too need protection?"
"My God, if he takes her side——! At any rate, her fear seemed to be that what she had done might ruin him; might cause him to feel—as well he may!—that the mere fact of being her husband makes his situation as Cicely's step-father, as my son-in-law, intolerable. And she came to clear him, as it were—to find out, in short, on what terms I should be willing to continue my present relations with him as though this hideous thing had not been known to me."
Mrs. Ansell raised her head quickly. "Well—and what were your terms?"
He hesitated. "She spared me the pain of proposing any—I had only to accept hers."
"Hers?"
"That she should disappear altogether from my sight—and from the child's, naturally. Good heaven, I should like to include Amherst in that! But I'm tied hand and foot, as you see, by Cicely's interests; and I'm bound to say she exonerated him completely—completely!"
Mrs. Ansell was again silent, but a swift flight of thoughts traversed her drooping face. "But if you are to remain on the old terms with her husband, how is she to disappear out of your life without also disappearing out of his?"
Mr. Langhope gave a slight laugh. "I leave her to work out that problem."
"And you think Amherst will consent to such conditions?"
"He's not to know of them."