It would be too dreadful to find that this woman really is your wife." "_What ?_" "I know what I am saying.

Nothing much worse could happen to you.

Don't you see where the hypothesis to which you persist in clinging would land you?
Should the woman in there prove to be your wife Georgian--" The lawyer stopped and, in a tone the seriousness of which could not fail to impress his agitated hearer, added quietly, "you remember what I said to you a short time ago about _guilt_." "Guilt!" "No, the word was shame.

But guilt better expresses my meaning.

I repeat, should the woman prove to be, not the lovely but ignorant girl she appears, but Georgian Ransom, your wife, then upon her must fall the onus of Anitra's disappearance if not of her possible death.