_Could they be true_?
The question, last outcome of the exercise of his imagination on the track of that unimaginable cause, brought him to a standstill, physically and mentally.

Those words had at first scarcely engaged his thought; it was her request to be released that seriously concerned him; that falsehood had been added as a desperate means of gaining her end.
Yet now, all other explanations in vain exhausted, perforce he gave heed to that hideous chime of memory.

It was not her father's death that caused her illness that she admitted, Had some horrible complication intervened, some incredible change come upon her, since he left England?
He shook off this suggestion as blasphemy.

Emily?
His high-souled Emily, upon whose faith he would stake the breath of his life?
Was his own reason failing him?
Worn out, he reached the house in the middle of the afternoon, and went to his own sitting-room.

Presently a servant came and asked whether he would take luncheon.