"Where is Alden? Is he not with you?" anxiously inquired Emma, coming to meet them.
"Our friend might certainly have come back with us if he had chosen to do so; but he deemed it better to remain at Wendover to-night, and we agreed with him. He is at my house," answered Mr. Lyle.
"You have something painful to tell me. I beg you will tell it at once," said Emma, turning very pale, but controlling herself perfectly and speaking with calmness.
"Something ridiculous, if it were not so outrageous, I should say, dear Mrs. Lytton. Is there a light in the parlor?"
"Yes."
"Then come with me there and I will tell you all about it," answered Mr. Lyle, speaking cheerfully, as he offered his arm to Emma.
They left the room together and went to the parlor, where a lamp was burning low and shedding a dim light around.
Mr. Lyle led his hostess to a sofa, where he sat down beside her.
And then and there he told her the whole history of the charge that had been brought against her husband, as it came out upon the preliminary examination.
Emma listened in unspeakable grief, horror, amazement and mortification. Yet with all these strong emotions struggling in her bosom, she controlled herself so far as to preserve her outward composure and answer with calmness.