‘She is my very life now, mother.’

’Have I not said you had better die then?  On no other terms will I go on those sands.  But I tell you frankly what I think about this matter.  I think that you absurdly exaggerate the effect the knowledge of her father’s crime will have upon the girl.’

‘No, no; I do not.  Mercy, dear mother, mercy!  I am your only child.’

’That is the very reason why you, who may some day be the heir of one of the first houses in England, must never marry Winifred Wynne.’

’But I don’t want to be heir of the Aylwins; I don’t want my uncle’s property,’ I retorted.  ’Nor do I want the other bauble prizes of the Aylwins.’

’Providence has taken Frank, and says you must stand where you stand,’ replied my mother solemnly.  ’You may even some day, should Cyril be childless, succeed to the earldom, and then what an alliance would this be!’

’Earldom!  I’d not have it.  I’d trample on the coronet.  Gingerbread!  I’d trample it in the mud, if it were to sever me from Winifred.’

’You must succeed to it should Cyril Aylwin, who seems disinclined to marry, die childless,’ said my mother quietly; ’and by that time you may perhaps have reached man’s estate.’

‘Pity, mother, pity!’ I cried in despair, as I looked at the strong woman who bore me.

’Pity upon whom?  Have pity upon me, and upon the family you now represent.  As to all the fearful effects that the knowledge of this sacrilege will have upon the girl, that is a subject upon which you must allow me to have my own opinion.  God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, and provides thick skins for the canaille.  What will concern her chiefly, perhaps entirely, will be the loss of her father, and she will soon know of that, whether she finds the body on the sands or not.  This kind of person is not nearly so sensitive as my romantic Henry supposes.  However, my condition will not be departed from.  If you consent to give up this girl I will go on the sands; I will defile my fingers; I will secure the stolen amulet at the ebb of the tide, should the corpse become exposed.  If you will not consent to give her up, there is an end of the matter, and words are being wasted between us.’

‘Give up Winifred, mother?  That is not possible.’

’Then there is no more to be said.  We will not waste our time in discussing impossibilities.  And I am really so depressed and unwell that I must return to my room.  I hope to hear you are better in the morning, and I think you will be.  The excitement of this night and your anxiety about the girl have unstrung your nerves, and you have lost that courage and endurance which are yours by birthright.’

And she left the room.

But she had no sooner gone than there came before my eyes the insupportable picture of a slim figure walking along the sands stooping to look at some object among the debris, standing aghast at the sight of her dead father with the evidence of his hideous crime on his own breast; there came the sound of a cry to ‘Henry’ for help!  I beat my head against the bedstead till I was nearly stunned.  I yelled and bellowed like a maniac:  ‘Mother, come back!’