To the fact! Dr. Bevary spoke with strange coolness.
'When did you become acquainted with it?' asked Mr. Hunter, in a tone of sharp pain.
'I became acquainted with your share in it at the time Miss Gwinn discovered that Mr. Lewis was Mr. Hunter. At least, with as much of the share as I ever was acquainted with until to-day.'
Mr. Hunter compressed his lips. It was no use beating about the bush any longer.
'James,' resumed the doctor, 'why did you not confide the secret to me? It would have been much better.'
'To you! Louisa's brother!'
'It would have been better, I say. It might not have lifted the sword that was always hanging over Louisa's head, or have eased it by one jot; but it might have eased you. A sorrow kept within a man's own bosom, doing its work in silence, will burn his life away: get him to talk of it, and half the pain is removed. It is also possible that I might have made better terms than you, with the rapacity of Gwinn.'
'If you knew it, why did you not speak openly to me?'
Dr. Bevary suppressed a shudder. 'It was one of those terrible secrets that a third party cannot interfere in uninvited. No: silence was my only course, so long as you observed silence to me. Had I interfered, I might have said "Louisa shall leave you!"'
'It is over, so far as she is concerned,' said Mr. Hunter, wiping his damp brow. 'Let her name rest. It is the thought of her that has well nigh killed me.'