"They are," said Tod, "and they have agreed to share the income you have held all these years. I am afraid that the game is up, Major."
Rebb said nothing. The game was indeed up, and he did not know which way to turn, or how to get the better of his pitiless opponents. Mrs. Berch left her daughter for the moment and touched his arm. "Why did you not tell me that there was another girl?" she asked hoarsely and savagely.
"There was no need." And the Major shook her off.
"There was every need. You told me, you told Madge, that your income depended upon Mavis Durham----"
"Mavis Haskins, if you please," interpolated that young lady.
Mrs. Berch paid no attention. "On Mavis Durham not marrying. You said that if in some way her insanity could be proved, and she could be stopped from marriage, that your income would be safe. For that reason my daughter wished to marry you."
"She loved me," said Rebb unsteadily, and looked at Mrs. Crosbie.
"I loved you as well as any other man," she said coolly, and shrugging her shoulders, "but I would have married anyone to escape from debt and duns and hideous poverty. As you are now poor, of course I cannot marry you. Come, mother. There is nothing more to be got here. Let us go back to our misery."
Rebb said nothing, but turned very white. The woman for whom he had sold his soul was ready to cast him aside like an old glove. Mrs. Crosbie, with a vicious glance at Mavis, and a look of indifference at the man she had professed to love, took her mother's arm. Mrs. Berch was quite ready to go, and indeed seemed to be in a hurry to depart. But the path of the two was blocked by the tiny figure of Arnold, who had hitherto held his peace.
"So you did know that the Major's income depended upon Mavis being prevented, even by the murder of Bellaria, from marrying?"