that has been gnawing at your poor foolish manly 
 : you think that Aurora murdered the 
groom /" 

John Mellish, started, shuddering convulsively. 

" No, no," he gasped ; " who said so  who 
said ?" 

" You think tins, John," continued Talbot Bul- 
strode ; * and you do her the most grievous wrong 
that ever yet was done to woman ; a more - 
ful wrong than I committed when I thought that 
Aurora Floyd had been guilty of some base 
intrigue." 

" You don't know " stammered John. 

" I don't know ! I know all, and foresaw  
for you, before you saw the cloud that w 7 as in the 
sky. But I never dreamt of this. I thought the 
foolish country people would suspect your wife, as 



UNDER A CLOUD. 213 

it always pleases people to try and fix a crime 
upon the person in whom that crime would be 
more particularly atrocious. I was prepared for 
this ; but to think that you  you, John, who should 
have learned to know your wife by this time  to 
think that you should suspect the woman you have 
loved of a foul and treacherous murder !" 

" How do we know that the  that the man was 
murdered ?" cried John vehemently. " Who says