"Answer me!" she said, in the same tense tone of pure will. "Have you let that man Graves cheat the trustees,—do anything dishonest,—and shut your eyes to it?"
"Pemberton claims he hasn't lived up to the specifications," the architect admitted sullenly.
"And you knew it?"
"So he says."
There was a moment's silence between them while the vision of this fraud filled their minds. She seemed to hesitate before the evil thing that she had raised, and then she asked again, quickly:—
"Have you—did you make any money from it?"
He did not reply.
"Tell me, Francis!" she persisted. "Did this man give you anything for letting him—cheat the trustees? Tell me!"
He was cold and careless now. This new will in his wife, unexpected, so totally unlike her gentle, yielding nature, compelled him to reveal some part of the truth. In this last resort her will was the stronger. He said slowly:—
"If he got the school contract, there was an understanding that he was to give me some stock in a corporation. It was involved with other business."