A sharp spasm contracted Dick’s hard features; he set his lips and said nothing.

“That’s the truth,” the squire proceeded, watching him.  “And you know it.  She might have bolted with Saltash before if she had wanted to.  She had ample opportunity.”

Dick’s hands clenched at his sides, but still he said nothing.

“She loved you,” the squire said again.  “Lady Jo—­or no Lady Jo—­she loved you.  It wasn’t make-believe.  She was fairly caught—­against her will possibly—­but still caught.  She’s run away from you now—­run away with another man—­because she couldn’t stay and face you.  Is that convincing proof, do you think, that she has ceased to love you?  It wouldn’t convince me.”

Dick’s clenched hands were beating impotently against his sides.  “I—­can’t say, sir,” he said, between his set teeth.

The squire moved impulsively, laid a hand on his shoulder.  “Dick, I’ve seen a good deal—­suffered a good deal—­in my time; enough to know the real thing when I see it.  She’s loved you as long as she’s known you, and it’s been the same with you.  You’re not going to deny that?  You can’t deny it!”

Dick made a quick gesture of protest.  For a moment the tortured soul of the man looked out of his eyes.  “Does that make it any better?” he said harshly.

“In my opinion, yes.”  Fielding spoke with decision.  “She may have taken refuge with Saltash, but that doesn’t prove anything—­except that the poor girl had no one else to turn to.  You had failed her—­or anyhow you didn’t offer to stand by.”

“I couldn’t!” The words came jerkily, as if wrung from him by main force.  “For one thing—­the men were out of hand, and it was as much as I could do to hold them.  She told them, I tell you—­stood up and told them straight out—­who she was.  And they loathe the whole crowd.  It was madness.”

“Pretty sublime madness!” commented the squire.  “And then Saltash took her away.  Was that it?”

“Yes.”  Dick spoke with intense bitterness.  “It was the chance he was waiting for.  Of course he seized it.  Any blackguard would.”

“But you thought she might have come here?” pursued the squire.

“I thought it possible, yes.  I told Yardley it was so.  He of course sneered at the bare idea.  I nearly choked him for it.  But I might have known he was right.  She wouldn’t risk—­my following her.  She wanted to be—­free.”

“Why?  Is she afraid of you then?” Fielding’s voice was stern.

Dick threw up his head with the action of a goaded animal.  “Yes.”

“Then you’ve given her some reason?”

“Yes.  I have given her reason!” Fiercely he flung the words.  “You want to know—­you shall know!  This evening she found out something about me which even you don’t know yet—­something that made her hate me.  I was going to tell her some day, but the time hadn’t come.  She said if she had known of it she would never have married me.  I didn’t realize then—­how could I?—­how hard it hit her.  And I made her understand that having married me—­it was irrevocable.  That was why she ran away with Saltash.  She didn’t—­trust me—­any longer.”