Quest announced to his wife that he was going to London on business
connected with the bank, and expected to be away for a couple of
nights.
She laughed straight out. "Really, William," she said, "you are a most
consummate actor. I wonder that you think it worth while to keep up
the farce with me. Well, I hope that Edith is not going to be very
expensive this time, because we don't seem to be too rich just now,
and you see there is no more of my money for her to have."
Mr. Quest winced visibly beneath this bitter satire, which his wife
uttered with a smile of infantile innocence playing upon her face, but
he made no reply. She knew too much. Only in his heart he wondered
what fate she would mete out to him if ever she got possession of the
whole truth, and the thought made him tremble. It seemed to him that
the owner of that baby face could be terribly merciless in her
vengeance, and that those soft white hands would close round the
throat of a man she hated and utterly destroy him. Now, if never
before, he realised that between him and this woman there must be
enmity and a struggle to the death; and yet strangely enough he still
loved her!
Mr. Quest reached London about three o'clock, and his first act was to
drive to Cossey and Son's, where he was informed that old Mr.
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