He ceased speaking, and Adela stood mute, looking him in the face.  She was appalled on his account.  She did not love him; too often his presence caused her loathing.  But of late she had been surprised into thinking more highly of some of his qualities than it had hitherto been possible for her to do.  She could never forget that he toiled first and foremost for his own advancement to a very cheap reputation; he would not allow her to lose sight of it had she wished.  But during the present winter she had discerned in him a genuine zeal to help the suffering, a fervour in kindly works of which she had not believed him capable.  Very slowly the conviction had come to her, but in the end she could not resist it.  One evening, in telling her of the hideous misery he had been amongst, his voice failed and she saw moisture in his eyes.  Was his character changing?  Had she wronged him in attaching too much importance to a fault which was merely on the surface?  Oh, but there were too many indisputable charges against him.  Yet a man’s moral nature may sometimes be strengthened by experience of the evil he has wrought.  All this rushed through her mind as she now stood gazing at him.

‘But how can they credit an anonymous letter?’ she said.  ’How can they believe the worst of you before making inquiries?’

’They have been to the office of the Company.  Everything is upside down.  They say Hilary isn’t to be found.’

‘Who can have written such a letter?’

’How do I know?  I have enemies enough, no doubt.  Who hasn’t that makes himself a leader?’

There was the wrong note again.  It discouraged her; she was silent.

‘Look here, Adela,’ he said, ‘do you believe this?’

‘Believe it!’

’Do you think I’m capable of doing a thing like that—­scraping together by pennies the money of the poorest of the poor just to use it for my own purposes—­could I do that?’

‘You know I do not believe it.’

’But you don’t speak as if you were certain.  There’s something—­But how am I to prove I’m innocent?  How can I make people believe I wasn’t in the plot?  They’ve only my word—­who’ll think that enough?  Anyone can tell a lie and stick to it, if there’s no positive proof against him.  How am I to make you believe that I was taken in?’

’But I tell you that a doubt of your innocence does not enter my mind.  If it were necessary, I would stand up in public before all who accused you and declare that they were wrong.  I do not need your assurance.  I recognise that it would be impossible for you to commit such a crime.’

‘Well, it does me good to hear you say that,’ he replied, with light of hope in his eyes.  ’I wanted to feel sure of that.  You might have thought that’—­he sank his voice—­’that because I could think of destroying that will—­’

‘Don’t speak of that!’ she interrupted, with a gesture of pain.  ’I say that I believe you.  It is enough.  Don’t speak about me any more.  Think of what has to be done.’