“And your troubles shall grow less by being shared. Now tell me I am right about it. Your worry is due to this Mr Crellock?”
“Yes,” he said in a low voice.
“I knew it,” she cried. “You have always been troubled when he came down, and when you went up to town. I knew as well as if you had told me that you had seen him when you went up. There was always the same harassed, careworn look in your eyes; and Robert, darling, if you had known how it has made me suffer, you would have come to me for consolation, if not for help.”
“Ah! yes, perhaps.”
“Now go on,” she said firmly, and rising from her place by his knees, she took a chair and drew it near him.
“There,” she said smiling; “you shall see how business-like I will be.”
He sat with his brow knit for a few minutes, and then drew a long breath.
“You are right,” he said. “Stephen Crellock is mixed up with it. You shall know all. And mind this, whatever people may say—”
“Whatever people may say!” she exclaimed contemptuously.
“I am innocent; my hands are clean.”