He felt the blood leave his heart and pound dizzily in his
brain, and then recede, followed by an icy coldness, a wavering of the
commonplace objects of the room. He raised his fingers to his collar,
stared with burning eyes at Stephen Jannan. "Everything spoiled," the
latter said again; "her pupils will positively be taken from her at once
by all the nice females. Her name will be pronounced, smiled over, in
every despicable quarter of the city, printed in the daily sheets. I--I
can't forgive you for this. Susan, our especial joy!"
Jasper Penny saw in a flash, as vivid and remorseless as a stab of
lightning, that this was all true. The fatality of the past, sweeping
forward in a black, strangling tide, had overtaken not only himself but
Susan, too; Susan, in soft merino, in an azure velvet cloak; her face
against his. "I shall go away at once," he said hoarsely. "I'll never
appear, and they can think what they will. Then there will be no
necessity for her to come forward. She shall be spared that, no matter
what it costs."
"Romantic and youthful folly," Jannan declared; "loud-sounding and
useless. How little you understand Susan--immediately it is known Culser
was killed between seven and nine, whether you stay or go, she will come
forward with the truth, free you from any suspicion.
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