It was my husband's scheme."
"Very well, it was our scheme, if you like. At any rate, the whole
responsibility rests--or should rest--upon our shoulders. We have
ruined him, and we have ruined hundreds of others. It is only fair
that we should bear our share of the calamity."
"And haven't we done so? You have lost all your money. That is
punishment enough. And Archie, too--" She paused, a fierce note of
defiance ringing out with her last words. Beatrice made no answer, and
the two women looked at each other in significant silence. "You don't
mean that--that it was--dishonest?"
"I have no doubt Mr. Travers believed the mine was going to be a
success. But it has failed, and the whole burden of the failure rests
upon others, not upon him."
"My husband is ruined, too. All his money is gone."
"Yours remains."
"Yes, but--" She stammered and broke off helplessly.
Beatrice said nothing more. She saw the process of rapid thought on
her companion's working face. She knew there was no need to explain
further the careful precautions which Travers had made for his own
safety. She knew that for his wife there was only one action possible.
Lois rose to her feet.
"You must forgive me," she said, a new and dangerous light in her dark
eyes. "I am very slow and stupid about business matters, but I
understand what you have been trying to say to me. You have pointed
out a duty to me which otherwise, in my ignorance, I might have
overlooked.
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