"Who, then, is left to me! Lionel too! Lionel!" A sob shook the great frame.

Two tears slowly trickled down that haggard face and were lost in the stubble of beard upon his chin.

"I am accursed!" he said.
Never without such evidence could he have believed this thing.

From the moment that he was beset outside the gates of Godolphin Court he had conceived it to be the work of Rosamund, and his listlessness was begotten of the thought that she could have suffered conviction of his guilt and her hatred of him to urge her to such lengths as these.

Never for an instant had he doubted the message delivered him by Lionel that it was Mistress Rosamund who summoned him.