suppose it would be possible to find out a thing. They seem to have covered their tracks pretty carefully.'
'I don't care. You put the detectives on. I want to know the truth.'
'I won't, George. If you're determined to do that you'd better consult someone else. And look here, even if you got evidence that Evie had been unfaithful to you what would you do with it? You'd look rather silly divorcing your wife because she'd committed adultery ten years ago.'
'At all events I could have it out with her.'
'You can do that now, but you know just as well as I do that if you do she'll leave you. D'you want her to do that?'
George gave him an unhappy look.
'I don't know. I always thought she'd been a damned good wife to me. She runs the house perfectly, we never have any servant trouble; she's done wonders with the garden and she's splendid with all the village people. But damn it, I have my self-respect to think of. How can I go on living with her when I know that she was grossly unfaithful to me?'
'Have you always been faithful to her?'
'More or less, you know. After all, we've been married for nearly twenty-four years and Evie was never much for bed.'
The solicitor slightly raised his eyebrows, but George was too intent on what he was saying to notice.
'I don't deny that I've had a bit of fun now and then. A man wants it. Women are different.'
'We only have men's word for that,' said Harry Blane, with a faint smile.
'Evie's absolutely the last woman I'd have suspected of kicking over the traces. I mean, she's a very fastidious, reticent woman. What on earth made her write the damned book?'
'I suppose it was a very poignant experience and perhaps it was a relief to her to get it off her chest like that.'
'Well, if she had to write it why the devil didn't she write it under an assumed name?'
'She used her maiden name. I suppose she thought that was enough, and it would have been if the book hadn't had this amazing boom.'
George Peregrine and the lawyer were sitting opposite one another with a desk between them. George, his elbow on the desk, his cheek on his hand, frowned at his thought.
'It's rotten not to know what sort of a chap he was. One can't even tell if he was by way of being a gentleman. I mean, for all I know he may have been a farm-hand or a clerk in a lawyer's office.'
Harry Blane did not permit himself to smile and when he answered there was in his eyes a kindly, tolerant look.
'Knowing Evie so well I think the probabilities are that he was all right. Anyhow I'm sure he wasn't a clerk in my office.'
'It's been a shock to me,' the colonel sighed. 'I thought she was fond of me. She couldn't have written that book unless she hated me.'
'Oh, I don't believe that. I don't think she's capable of hatred.'
'You're not going to pretend that she loves me.'
'No.'
'Well, what does she feel for me?'
Harry Blane leaned back in his swivel chair and looked at George reflectively.
'Indifference, I should say.'
The colonel gave a little shudder and reddened.
'After all, you're not in love with her, are you?'
George Peregrine did not answer directly.
'It's been a great blow to me not to have any children, but I've never let her see that I think she's let me down. I've always been kind to her. Within reasonable limits I've tried to do my duty by her.'
The lawyer passed a large hand over his mouth to conceal the smile that trembled on his lips.
'It's been such an awful shock to me,' Peregrine went on. 'Damn it all, even ten years ago Evie was no chicken and God knows, she wasn't much to look at. It's so ugly.' He sighed deeply. 'What would you do in my place?'
'Nothing.'
George Peregrine drew himself bolt upright in his chair and he looked at Harry with the stern set face that he must have worn when he inspected his regiment.
'I can't overlook a thing like this. I've been made a laughing-stock. I can never hold up my head again'
'Nonsense,' said the lawyer sharply, and then in a pleasant, kindly manner. 'Listen, old boy: the man's dead; it all happened a long while back. Forget it. Talk to people about Evie's book, rave about it, tell'em how proud you are of her. Behave as though you had