Mrs. Awdrey left the house, and took Dr. Rumsey round by the side walk which led to the office. The door was now slightly ajar; Margaret entered the doctor following behind her.
"Well, my friend," said Dr. Rumsey, in his cheerful voice, "it is good to see you back in your old place again. Your wife's letter was so satisfactory that I could not resist the temptation of coming to see you for myself."
"I am in perfect health," replied Awdrey. "Sit down, won't you, Rumsey? Margaret, my dear, do you mind leaving us?"
"No, Robert," she answered. "I trust to Dr. Rumsey to bring you back to your senses."
"She does not know what she is saying," muttered Awdrey. He followed his wife to the door, and when she went out turned the key in the lock.
"It is a strange thing," he said, the moment he found himself alone with his guest, "that you, Rumsey, should be here at this moment. You were with me during the hour of my keenest and most terrible physical and mental degradation; you have now come to see me through the hour of my moral degradation—or victory."
"Your moral degradation or victory?" said the doctor; "what does this mean?"
"It simply means this, Dr. Rumsey; I am the unhappy possessor of a secret."
"Ah!"
"Yes—a secret. Were this secret known my wife's heart would be broken, and this honorable house of which I am the last descendant would go to complete shipwreck. I don't talk of myself in the matter."