So I--I naturally thought--"

"It was absolutely natural. In fact, it's quite true.... Shall we go to
the meeting now?"

But no, something in her required that he must state in plain words the
fact that would justify her accusation, alleged by his eyes to be so
unjust: namely, that it was (practically) a member of her family who had
done this splendid thing for him. Yet she went rather further than she
had intended when she said, glancing away over the queer dusky court:

"I will tell you. Some one gave us to understand--not he himself, of
course,--that it was a friend of ours who had done this ... Mr.
Hugo Canning."

He made no answer.

An uncontrollable desire carried the girl yet further. She said, in a
weakening voice:

"_Was it?_"

In saying this, she brought her eyes back fully to her victim. And if
ever guilt was written large upon a human countenance, it was upon the
face of V. Vivian at that moment. Brightly flushed he was, with an
embarrassment painful to witness. And yet, so strange is the way of
life, the joy of victory once again seemed to slip from the clutch of
Cally Heth. What house of cards was this she had pulled down upon
herself?...