astonishment at this strange accusation had given him so grave a
shock that he leaned against the wall behind him in silent wonder.

"Hello! Mallett, what the deuce is the matter with you?" the
surgeon exclaimed, as, looking up from a patient over whom he was
bending a short distance away, his eyes fell on the officer's face.
"You look as if you were going to faint, man.

"Here, orderly, some brandy and water, quickly!"

Frank drank some of the brandy and water and sat down for a few
minutes. Then, when he saw the surgeon at the other end of the
room, he got up and went across to Lechmere's bed.

"There is some terrible mistake, Lechmere," he said, quietly. "I
swear to you on my honour as a gentleman that you are altogether
wrong. From the moment that I got into my dog cart at Bennett's I
never saw Martha again. I know nothing whatever of this talk in the
garden. Did you think you saw me as well as heard me?"

"No, you were on one side of that high wall and I on the other, but
I heard enough to know who it was. You told her that you had to go
abroad at once, but that if she would come out there you would put
her in charge of someone until you could marry her. You told her
that she could not stay where she was long, and I knew what that
meant. I suppose she is at Calcutta still waiting, for of course
she could not have come out with you. I suppose that she is
breaking her heart there now--if she is not dead, as I hope she
is."