 Emma,« murmured his sister.
    Richard said nothing.
    »How shall you tell her, Dick?«
    »I can't tell her!« he replied, throwing out an arm. »How is it likely I can
tell her?«
    »And Jane's so dreadfully bad,« continued Alice in the undertone. »She's
always saying she cares for nothing but to see Emma married. What shall we do?
And everything seemed so first-rate. Suppose she summonses you, Dick?«
    The noble and dignified legal process whereby maidens right themselves
naturally came into Alice's thoughts. Her brother scouted the suggestion.
    »Emma's not that kind of girl. Besides, I've told you I shall always send
her money. She'll find another husband before long. Lots of men 'ud be only too
glad to marry her.«
    Alice was not satisfied with her brother. The practical aspects of the
rupture she could consider leniently, but the tone he assumed was jarring to her
instincts. Though nothing like a warm friendship existed between her and Emma,
she sympathised, in a way impossible to Richard, with the sorrows of the
abandoned girl. She was conscious of what her judgment would be if another man
had acted thus; and though this was not so much a matter of consciousness, she
felt that Richard might have spoken in a way more calculated to aid her in
taking his side. She wished, in fact, to see only his advantage, and was very
much tempted to see everything but that.
    »But you can't keep her in the dark any longer,« she urged. »Why, it's
cruel!«
    »I can't tell her,« he repeated monotonously.
    Alice drew in her feet. It symbolised retiring within her defences. She saw
what he was aiming at, and felt not at all disposed to pleasure him. There was a
long silence; Alice was determined not to be the first to break it.
    »You refuse to help me?« Richard asked at length, between his teeth.
    »I think it would be every bit as bad for me as for you,« she replied.
    »That you can't think,« he argued. »She can't blame you; you've only to say
I've behaved like a blackguard, and you're out of it.«
    »And when do you mean to tell mother?«
    »She'll have to hear of it from other people. I can'
