"Nothing can do her such harm as
your silence is doing now!"
Mr. Godfrey's fine eyes filled with tears. He cast one last appealing
look at her--and then he spoke the fatal words:
"If you will have it, Rachel--scandal says that the Moonstone is in
pledge to Mr. Luker, and that I am the man who has pawned it."
She started to her feet with a scream. She looked backwards and forwards
from Mr. Godfrey to my aunt, and from my aunt to Mr. Godfrey, in such a
frantic manner that I really thought she had gone mad.
"Don't speak to me! Don't touch me!" she exclaimed, shrinking back from
all of us (I declare like some hunted animal!) into a corner of
the room. "This is my fault! I must set it right. I have sacrificed
myself--I had a right to do that, if I liked. But to let an innocent man
be ruined; to keep a secret which destroys his character for life--Oh,
good God, it's too horrible! I can't bear it!"
My aunt half rose from her chair, then suddenly sat down again. She
called to me faintly, and pointed to a little phial in her work-box.
"Quick!" she whispered. "Six drops, in water. Don't let Rachel see."
Under other circumstances, I should have thought this strange.
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