“Kill him!” He laughed harshly.  “We don’t kill men who blacken our friend’s honour; we wait till they attack our own lives—­that’s our code for you.  If it were otherwise, I should act upon it with pleasure.  But I came to see Webb about this thing.  Where is he?”

“Oh, he is coming.”

She sat down, keeping her excited eyes upon him.  “It was Bernard, my own brother,” she said passionately.  “You know this, and the world must know it.  The world shall know it if I have to utter it from the housetops.  Oh, I have sinned enough in ignorance; now I will speak.”

She bit her lips to keep back the quick tears, tapping her foot upon the floor.  The red was in her cheeks and her eyes were as black as night.  Her bosom quivered from the lash of her scorn.

“But you must keep out of it, my dear Eugie.  Dudley and I will manage it.  We’ll see Diggs and get a retraction from him—­that’s sensible and simple.  There’s no scandal the better for dragging a woman into it.”

She stopped him fiercely.  “Then I give you fair warning.  If you do not stop it, I shall.  Ah, here’s Dudley!”

She met him as he entered the room, clasping her hands upon his arm.  “Dudley, have you seen it—­this falsehood?”

He let her hands fall from his arm and drew her with him to the fireside.  “Yes; I have seen it,” he answered, and as he shook hands heartily with Galt he made a casual remark about the weather.

“Oh, Dudley, what does the weather matter?” cried Eugenia.  “No, don’t sit down.  You are to go at once to Colonel Diggs and tell him everything—­and not spare any one—­and you may tell him also that—­I despise him!”

He smiled at her vehemence—­it was so unlike Eugenia.  “I didn’t know you took so much interest in these things,” he said lightly.  “I thought the baby had cured you.”

But she caught his hand and held it in her own.  “Don’t, Dudley,” she implored.  “You know what it means to me.  You know all.”

His face softened as he met her eyes; but instead of replying to her appeal he turned with a question to Galt.  “Can I do any good?” he asked.  “I am willing, of course, to do what I can.”

“I was going to ask you to see Diggs,” said Galt quietly.  “We shall endeavour to keep his speech out of the morning papers, but it has already appeared in the evening issue.  You might secure a card from him retracting his statements.  I hardly think he knew them to be false.”

“I’ll go at once,” replied Dudley.  He went into the hall and took up his hat, but as Galt opened the door he lingered an instant and looked at his wife.  She came to him, her eyes shining, and in a flash he realised that to Eugenia it was a question of his own honour as well as of the governor’s.  With a smile he lifted her chin and met her gaze.  “Are you satisfied, my lady?” he asked; but before she could respond he had joined Galt upon the pavement.

There he paused to light a cigar, while Galt hesitated and looked at his watch.  “I suppose I may leave it in your hands,” suggested the older man.  “Diggs isn’t on the best of terms with me, you know.”