"You owe it to your brother and to me.

Should I say, 'to me,' first?
It is to save us from disgrace--from being prosecuted as well as ruined, from being dragged into court to answer for having wilfully defrauded--that is the word they would use!--for having wilfully defrauded Veronica Serra of a great deal of money, when we were her guardians and responsible for everything she had.

My hands are clean of that--your brother did it without my knowledge.

But no judge living would believe that I, being a guardian with my husband, could be so wholly ignorant of his affairs.

There are severe penalties for such things, Bosio--I believe that we should both be sent to penal servitude; for no power on earth could save us from a conviction, any more than anything but Veronica's money can save us from ruin now.