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188 and went on: 'I don't know what dreadful thing you have found out, or what the possibility that has occurred to you can be, but it was good, it was honourable of you to come to me about it. Now will you please tell me?'

'I cannot do that,' Trent replied. 'The secret is my newspaper's if it is not yours. If I find it is yours, you shall have my manuscript to read and destroy. Believe me,' he broke out with something of his old warmth, 'I detest such mystery-making from the bottom of my soul; but it is not I who have made this mystery. This is the most painful hour of my life, and you make it worse by not treating me like a hound. The first thing I ask you to tell me,' he reverted with an effort to his colourless tone, 'is this: is it true, as you stated at the inquest, that you had no idea at all of the reason why your late husband had changed his attitude towards you, and become mistrustful and reserved, during the last few months of his life?'

Mrs. Manderson's dark brows lifted and her eyes flamed; she quickly rose from her chair. Trent got up at the same moment, and took his envelope from the table; his manner said that