Rachel turned from the window with a shudder; she caught up the first newspaper of the sheaf upon the writing-table.  Steel had moved into the body of the room; she could not even see him through the alcove.  So much the better; she would discover for herself what they said.

Leading articles are easily found, and in a Sunday paper they are seldom long.  Rachel was soon through the first, her blood boiling; the second she could not finish for her tears; the third dried her eyes with the fires of fierce resentment.  It was not so much what they said; it was what they were obviously afraid to say.  It was their circumlocution, their innuendo, their mild surprise, their perfunctory congratulations, their assumption of chivalry and their lack of its essence, that wounded and stung the subject of these effusions.  As she raised her flushed face from the last of them, Mr. Steel stood before her once more, the incarnation of all grave sympathy and consideration.

“You must not think,” said he, “that my proposal admits of no alternative but the miserable one of making your own way in a suspicious and uncharitable world.  On the contrary, if I am not to be your nominal and legal husband, I still intend to be your actual friend.  On the first point you are to be consulted, but on the second not even you shall stand in my way.  Nor in that event would I attempt to rob you of the independence which you value so highly; on the other hand, I would point the way to an independence worth having.  I am glad you have seen those papers, though to-morrow they may be worse.  Well, you may be shocked, but, if you won’t have me, the worse the better, say I!  Your case was most iniquitously commented upon before ever it came for trial; there is sure to be a fresh crop of iniquities now; but I shall be much mistaken if you cannot mulct the more flagrant offenders in heavy damages for libel.”

Rachel shivered at the thought.  She was done with her case for ever and for ever.  People could think her guilty if they liked, but that the case should breed other cases, and thus drag on and on, and, above all, that she should make money out of all that past horror, what an unbearable idea!

On second thoughts, Mr. Steel agreed.

“Then you must let me send you back to Australia.”  No, no, no; she could never show her face there again, or anywhere else where she was known.  She must begin life afresh, that was evident.

“It was evident to me,” said Steel, quietly, “though not more so than the injustice of it, from the very beginning.  Hence the plans and proposals that I have put before you.”

Rachel regarded him wildly; the Sunday papers had driven her to desperation, as, perhaps, it was intended that they should.

“Are you sure,” she cried, “that they would not know me—­up north?”

“Not from Eve,” he answered airily.  “I should see to that; and, besides, we should first travel, say until the summer.”