After a short preliminary interview with Blanche, Arnold had rejoined
Geoffrey in the safe retirement of the library, to say what was still
left to be said between them on the subject of Anne. Having completed
his report of events at Craig Fernie, he was now naturally waiting to
hear what Geoffrey had to say on his side. To Arnold's astonishment,
Geoffrey coolly turned away to leave the library without uttering a
word.

Arnold stopped him without ceremony.

"Not quite so fast, Geoffrey," he said. "I have an interest in Miss
Silvester's welfare as well as in yours. Now you are back again in
Scotland, what are you going to do?"

If Geoffrey had told the truth, he must have stated his position much as
follows:

He had necessarily decided on deserting Anne when he had decided on
joining his brother on the journey back. But he had advanced no farther
than this. How he was to abandon the woman who had trusted him, without
seeing his own dastardly conduct dragged into the light of day, was more
than he yet knew. A vague idea of at once pacifying and deluding Anne,
by a marriage which should be no marriage at all, had crossed his mind
on the journey. He had asked himself whether a trap of that sort might
not be easily set in a country notorious for the looseness of its
marriage laws--if a man only knew how? And he had thought it likely that
his well-informed brother, who lived in Scotland, might be tricked
into innocently telling him what he wanted to know. He had turned the
conversation to the subject of Scotch marriages in general by way of
trying the experiment. Julius had not studied the question; Julius knew