‘My dearest, I shall be able to confront this charge,’ answered John Treverton. ‘I have no fear of that. I made a miserable mistake in not facing the difficulty at the time. The business may be a little more troublesome now than it would have been then, but I am not afraid. I would not ask you to go to London with me, darling, if I feared the result of my journey.’
‘Do you think I would let you go alone in any case?’ asked Laura.
She was thinking that even if this trouble were to end in the scaffold, she would be with him to the last, clinging to him and holding by him as other brave women had held by their loved ones, face to face with death. But no, it would not come to that. She was so convinced, in her own mind, of his innocence, that she could not suppose there would be much difficulty in proving the fact in a court of law.
‘You will take your maid with you, of course?’ said Treverton.
‘Yes, I should like to take Mary.’
‘Where am I to be during this inquiry?’ asked Treverton, turning to the detective.
‘At the House of Detention, Clerkenwell.’
‘Not the most desirable neighbourhood, but it might be worse,’ said Treverton.
‘They are surely not going to put you in prison, John, before they have proved anything against you?’ cried his wife, with a look of horror.
‘It’s only a form, dear. We needn’t call it prison; but I shan’t be exactly at large. I think, perhaps, the best plan would be for you to take quiet lodgings at Islington, say in Colebrook Row, for instance. That’s a decent place. You’d prefer that to an hotel, wouldn’t you?’