all his love centred in his daughter, and he thought he would be able to spend his declining years in peace.  This, however, was not to be, and he was thunderstruck when Whyte arrived from England with the information that his first wife still lived, and that the daughter of his second was illegitimate.  Sooner than risk exposure, Frettlby agreed to anything; but Whyte’s demands became too exorbitant, and he refused to comply with them.  On Whyte’s death he again breathed freely, when suddenly a second possessor of his fatal secret started up in the person of Roger Moreland.  As the murder of Duncan had to be followed by that of Banquo, in order to render Macbeth safe, so he foresaw that while Roger Moreland lived his life would be one long misery.  He knew that the friend of the murdered man would be his master, and would never leave him during his life, while after his death he would probably publish the whole ghastly story, and defame the memory of the widely-respected Mark Frettlby.  What is it that Shakespeare says?—­

“Good name in man or woman
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.”

And after all these years of spotless living and generous use of his wealth, was he to be dragged down to the depths of infamy and degradation by a man like Moreland?  Already, in fancy, he heard the jeering cries of his fellow-men, and saw the finger of scorn point at him—­he, the great Mark Frettlby, famous throughout Australia for his honesty, integrity, and generosity.  No, it could not be, and yet this would surely happen unless he took means to prevent it.

The day after he had seen Moreland, and knew that his secret was no longer safe, since it was in the power of a man who might reveal it at any moment in a drunken fit, or out of sheer maliciousness, he sat at his desk writing.  After a time he laid down his pen, and taking up a portrait of hic dead wife which stood just in front of him, he stared at it long and earnestly As he did so, his mind went back to the time when he had first met and loved her.  Even as Faust had entered into the purity and serenity of Gretchen’s chamber, out of the coarseness and profligacy of Auerbach’s cellar, so he, leaving behind him the wild life of his youth, had entered into the peace and quiet of a domestic home.  The old feverish life with Rosanna Moore, seemed to be as unsubstantial and chimerical, as, no doubt, his union with Lillith after he met Eve, seemed to Adam in the old Rabbinical legend.  There seemed to be only one way open to him, by which he could escape the relentless fate which dogged his steps.  He would write a confession of everything from the time he had first met Rosanna, and then—­death.  He would cut the Gordian knot of all his difficulties, and then his secret would be safe; safe? no, it could not be while Moreland lived.  When he was dead Moreland would see Madge and embitter her life with the story of her father’s sins—­yes—­he must live to protect her, and drag his weary chain