"I see that," said she dejectedly, "but I am dreadfully disappointed. I
had hoped that Dr. Thorndyke would get the case dismissed. What has
happened to Reuben?"

This was the question that I had dreaded, and now that I had to answer
it I cleared my throat and bent my gaze nervously on the floor.

"The magistrate refused bail," I said after an uncomfortable pause.

"Well?"

"Consequently Reuben has been--er--detained in custody."

"You don't mean to say that they have sent him to prison?" she exclaimed
breathlessly.

"Not as a convicted prisoner, you know. He is merely detained pending
his trial."

"But in prison?"

"Yes," I was forced to admit; "in Holloway prison."

She looked me stonily in the face for some seconds, pale and wide-eyed,
but silent; then, with a sudden catch in her breath, she turned away,
and, grasping the edge of the mantel-shelf, laid her head upon her arm
and burst into a passion of sobbing.

Now I am not, in general, an emotional man, nor even especially