“Under the circumstances does it not strike you as singular that she should not only enter the closet but lock it and take the key upstairs?”
“Eric, I have thought so myself,” sadly.
“Now, Joe, you are withholding something from me that has a bearing on this matter.”
“How do you know it?” quickly.
“Well, perhaps a little bird told me, or else I read the secret in your face. At any rate you have no business to keep it from me, I am trying to do my duty—heaven knows if I could I would have your wife as spotless as the noonday sky, and if she proves otherwise I shall lose faith in all womankind forever; but I must be able to weigh every particle of evidence for and against her.”
“I beg your pardon, Eric, but I felt so badly over the circumstance that I hardly had the heart to relate it to you.”
“Then it is against her?”
“I am afraid so.”
“The sky grows very black—poor Joe—poor Lillian—my heart is in sympathy with you.”
Joe had buried his face in his hands and seemed quite overcome.