Two days later, in the afternoon, Aldous Raeburn found himself at the door of Mellor.

When he entered the drawing-room, Mrs.Boyce, who had heard his ring, was hurrying away.
"Don't go," he said, detaining her with a certain peremptoriness.

"I want all the light on this I can get.

Tell me, she has _actually_ brought herself to regard this man's death as in some sort my doing--as something which ought to separate us ?" Mrs.Boyce saw that he held an opened letter from Marcella crushed in his hand.

But she did not need the explanation.