They clasped hands with the calmness of men who strike a mutually advantageous bargain: there was no pretence of any other feeling in the touch. But Madge placed her hands on theirs, and her face was radiant with joy.
‘You are both my friends and Philip’s,’ she said; ‘he wanted you to understand each other: he desired it and thought of it a great deal more than of the fortune you tried to tempt him with, Mr Shield.’
‘I should like to understand this riddle,’ Philip broke in. ‘I have known you as Beecham, and another as Austin Shield.’
Beecham drew from his pocket a pencil and note-book. He wrote: ‘I am the Austin Shield you have known in correspondence—as this will testify. The man you have met under my name is Jack Hartopp, who has been my faithful ally and comrade for years past. For reasons—most unhappy reasons, which shall be fully explained—I desired to test your nature before you became the husband of Madge Heathcote.’
‘I recognise the writing,’ said Philip, ‘but am unable to comprehend what authority you can pretend to have over Miss Heathcote.’
‘I will explain that,’ interrupted Madge; and she did so to his entire satisfaction within a few hours.
Meanwhile, Philip was anything but satisfied. He was frowning as he put the next question:
‘Then this report about the losses—the financial difficulties which prevented Mr Shield from giving me the assistance I required?’
‘You have had the assistance you required; you have been rescued from the clutches of a knave, who would have duped you out of everything; you have had a lesson which will be worth thousands to you; and you have still the opportunity of carrying out your plans to what I hope will be a satisfactory issue.’ Shield said this in a tone of reproach; but observing the changes on Philip’s face, he proceeded with his usual kindliness of expression: ‘I could never have known what genuine and generous stuff you were made of, Philip, unless I had seen you in misfortune, and found that you are ready to give up everything to support the man whose money you had lost.’
‘That was my duty.’