"Yes--I have lent him money, when he was in need. Just before the
death of your father."
"Once only?"
"Once--or twice----"
"To be sure. Lately, too, I daresay?"
"Yes----"
"Then you quite understand his character?"
"I do now," Mrs. Hannaford replied wretchedly. "But I must tell you
more. If it were only a suspicion of my husband's I should hardly
care at all. But someone must have betrayed me to him, and have told
deliberate falsehoods. I am accused--it was when I was at the
seaside once--and he came to the same hotel--Oh, the shame, the
shame!"
She covered her face with her hands, and turned away.
"Why," cried Piers, in wrath, "that fellow is quite capable of
having betrayed you himself. I mean, of lying about you for his own
purposes."
"You think he could be so wicked?"
"I don't doubt it for a moment. He has done his best to persuade you
to ruin yourself for him, and he thinks, no doubt, that if you are
divorced, nothing will stand between him and you--in other words,
your money."
"He said, when I saw him yesterday, that now it had come to this, I
had better take that step at once. And when I spoke of my innocence,
he asked who would believe it? He seemed sorry; really he did.
Perhaps he is not so bad as one fears?"
"Where did you see him yesterday?" asked Otway.
"At his lodgings. I was _obliged_ to go and see him as soon as
possible.
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