He raised her up gently, and with earnest words reassured her, blaming himself for his harshness and folly.
She suddenly opened her bag and emptied the contents out on his desk.
"There! I have brought you these."
Her husband gazed in silent astonishment.
"I don't understand."
"They are for you," she said--"for us. To pay our debts. To help you." She pulled off her glove and began to take off her diamond rings.
"They will not go a great way," said Norman, with a smile of indulgence.
"Well, as far as they will go they shall go. Do you think I will keep anything I have when you are in trouble--when your good name is at stake? The house--everything shall go. It is all my fault. I have been a wicked, silly fool; but I did not know--I ought to have known; but I did not. I do not see how I could have been so blind and selfish."
"Oh, don't blame yourself. I have not blamed you," said Norman, soothingly. "Of course, you did not know. How could you? Women are not expected to know about those things."
"Yes, they are," insisted Mrs. Wentworth. "If I had not been such a fool I might have seen. It is all plain to me now. Your harassment--my folly--it came to me like a stroke of lightning."