“Everything?” she began, interrupting him.

“Please listen to what I have to tell you, and defer your objections until later,” remarked the lawyer, coldly.

“Yes, everything.  You are also to give up all jewels of every description that you have in your possession to make good as far as may be the losses of those who have suffered through your dishonesty.  You are then to pledge yourself to leave New York and never show yourself here again upon pain of immediate arrest, nor cause any of the revelations of this morning to be made public.  Upon these conditions we have decided, for the sake of the feelings of others, to let you go free and not subject you to a trial for your crime—­provided Mr. Cutler agrees to this decision.”

“But—­but I must have something to live on,” the miserable woman said, with white lips.  “I can’t give up everything; the law would give me my third, and I ought to inherit much more through my child.”

“The law would give you—­a criminal—­nothing,” Mr. Graves here sternly remarked.  “Let me but reveal the fact that Mr. Dinsmore wished to secure everything to his daughter, and how you defrauded her, and you would find that the law would not deal very generously with you.”

“But I must have money.  I could not bear poverty,” reiterated the woman, tremulously.

“Mr. Graves—­Mr. Corbin!” Mona here interposed, turning to them, “it surely becomes the daughter’s duty to be as generous as the father, and—­”

“Generous!” bitterly exclaimed Mrs. Montague.

“Yes, he was generous,” Mona asserted, with cold positiveness, “for, after all the wrong of which you had been guilty, he certainly would have been justified if he had utterly renounced you and refused to make any provision for you.  But since he did not, I will do what I think he would have wished, and, with the consent of these gentlemen,” with a glance at Ray and the lawyers, “I will continue the same annuity that he granted to you.”

“That is an exceedingly noble and liberal proposition, Miss Dinsmore,” Mr. Corbin remarked, bestowing a glance of admiration upon her, “and with all my heart I honor you for it.”

Mrs. Montague did not make any acknowledgment or reply.  She had dropped her head upon her hands and seemed to be lost in her own unhappy reflections.

Mr. Graves and Mr. Corbin conferred together for a few moments, and then the former remarked: 

“Mrs. Montague will, of course, wish to give these subjects some consideration, and meanwhile I will go to consult with Mr. Cutler regarding his interest in the matter.”

He left immediately, and Mr. Corbin and Mr. Rider fell into general conversation, while Ray and Mona withdrew to the lower end of the drawing-room, where they could talk over matters unheard.

Mr. Graves was gone about an hour, and then returned accompanied by Mr. Justin Cutler himself.

After discussing at some length the question of Mrs. Montague being brought to trial he finally agreed to concur in the decision of the others.