She believed that such statements might be blunders and not falsehoods,--so convinced was she that her husband's mind would not act at all times as do the minds of other men.

But having such a conviction she was driven to believe also that almost anything might be possible.

Soames may have been right, or he might have dropped, not the book, but the cheque.

She had no difficulty in presuming Soames to be wrong in any detail, if by so supposing she could make the exculpation of her husband easier to herself.

If villany on the part of Soames was needful to her theory, Soames would become to her a villain at once,--of the blackest dye.