His arm tightened about her.
"He'd be glad to hear that, Anne——"
"I could forgive." She drew herself up a little. "But I wouldn't help him to escape his punishment, Tristram."
"You couldn't, dear. No one escapes."
"Yes, that's true, isn't it? Sooner or later they are found out. They say criminals always return to the scenes of their crime. Mother told me Ayeshi had been seen slinking about Heerut at night——"
"Ayeshi?" he interrupted perplexedly.
She gave a quick glance into his face.
"Yes—of course, I'd forgotten, no one's ever told you. You see, you were so fond of Ayeshi, and you were ill, and so we arranged that we wouldn't tell you unless—unless he was caught. Afterwards no one liked to, and you're such an old hermit—you never hear anything. But now it doesn't matter, does it? It was Ayeshi who tried to kill my father."
He pushed her away from him as though she had suddenly ceased to exist for him.
"I don't understand——"