Page 209 (1/1)

"I' like this can't very well be hushed up," said Anstice rather reluctantly "And though I can't help feeling thankful that Mrs Carstairs will have justice done to her at last, I'ood deal sooner than let this dreadful thing happen"

"Dr Anstice"--Chloe turned to hily--"are we really to blame? If we hadn't plotted, set a trap to catch my poor Tochatti, this would not have coer inthis dreadful tragedy about"

"Come, Mrs Carstairs, you"You were not in the least to bla I did not warn you of this possibility But you know the poor soul was a very determined woman; and if she had set her mind on self-destruction she would have carried out her intention so the authorship of those confounded letters a secret now," said Major Carstairs, putting his hand kindly on his wife's arm "After all poor Tochatti has done us a service by her death which will go far towards wiping out the injury of her life And now it is one o'clock, and we none of us had ht," said Anstice quickly, "and Mrs Carstairs looks worn out Can't you persuade her to go to bed, Major Carstairs? There is really no need for her to stay here harrowing her feelings another ain, Dr Anstice It will comfort me to know that you don't think me entirely to blame--for this"

"I think you are as innocent in this ht," he said quietly "And this poor woained by now the sanity she may have temporarily lost, would be the last to think any but kindly thoughts of you in the light of her fuller huain, as she had said it earlier in the evening; and once ed the firm and cordial handshake by which those who are truly friends seal their parting

When he had closed the door behind her he came back to the bedside where Major Carstairs still stood, looking down on the dead woman with an unfathomable expression in his eyes