"It is enough for us both until I make an actual success as a barrister."
"Ah!" Lady Sanby wagged her old head, "that is the only thing I have to say against this very sensible journey. Is it wise, Ralph, to interrupt your career?"
"Yes, on the assumption that absence makes the heart grow fonder. But even if it were not wise, grannie, I should still undertake the journey for the sake of Audrey. So much of the case has been published in the papers that if Audrey and I remained in London we should constantly be bothered by silly people asking questions. If we travel for a year--as we intend to do--the affair will be forgotten."
"Lady Branwin went down with the deliberate intention of killing her husband, did she not, Ralph?"
"I really can't say. She certainly said in the office that she would never see Audrey again, and was going away to do justice. Perry Toat would have had her arrested, but she slipped away in the fog. Having learnt from Audrey that Sir Joseph and Miss Pearl were at the Three Fishers Hotel at Weed-on-the-Sands, she caught the six o'clock train and arrived at eight. Then she asked at the hotel where her husband was to be found. In this way she came on to the pier, and, having made a scene which attracted the attention of those on the promenade, she suddenly jumped at Branwin and flung both herself and him into the deep water. When the bodies were discovered they could scarcely be parted, so tight was Lady Branwin's embrace."
"Well, I expect the miserable woman had some idea of punishing the brute to whom she had been bound for so many unhappy years," said Lady Sanby, after a pause; "but I also think that she took sudden advantage of his being on the pier to drown both him and herself. Miss Pearl made a fine lot of trouble over the matter."
Shawe could not help smiling. "Miss Pearl was very much concerned about her reputation, and caused it to be generally known that she, like Sir Joseph, had really and truly believed Lady Branwin to be dead. Miss Pearl also made public the fact that she had induced Sir Joseph to make the codicil to his will giving Audrey, as my wife, the two thousand a year. Finally, she wrote a letter to the papers, and stated at the inquest that she had accompanied Sir Joseph to Weed-on-the-Sands with the sole idea of reconciling him to his daughter. In fact, she made herself out to be a conventional martyr, and everyone believed her."
"Oh, I don't think the woman was really ill-natured," said the old lady, with a shrug. "She certainly behaved very well over Audrey's money; but I expect she did so in order not to appear the unjust stepmother."
"Grannie, grannie, will you never credit anyone with good intentions?"
"Oh, I credit Miss Rosy Pearl with all the virtues. She says she has them, so we must believe her. All the same, she has thought it necessary to accept an American engagement for three years."