"Cannonby remaining with him?"
"Yes. I am sure I have told you this before, Lionel. I told it to you on the night of my return."
He was aware she had. He could not say: "But I wish to press you upon the points; to ascertain beyond doubt that Frederick Massingbird did really die; that he is not living." "Did Cannonby stay until he was buried?" he asked aloud.
"Yes."
"You are sure of this?"
Sibylla looked at him curiously. She could not think why he was recalling this; why want to know it?
"I am sure of it only so far as that Captain Cannonby told me so," replied Sibylla.
The reservation struck upon him with a chill; it seemed to be a confirmation of his worst fears. Sibylla continued, for he did not speak—
"Of course he stayed with him until he was buried. When Captain Cannonby came back to me at Melbourne, he said he had waited to lay him in the ground. Why should he have said it, if he did not?"
"True," murmured Lionel.