"The poor dear," she thought, "what she must have gone through! Oh! what a misfortune to have come across that terrible woman. And she looked so nice, so clean, so respectable. Thank Heaven, Augusta was not with her very long." She went over in her mind her conversation with the Inspector.
"What a disagreeable man! He seemed quite to doubt my word that Augusta was my sister. Perhaps I had better say in future that she is my half-sister. She does look ridiculously young."
Suddenly poor Prudence bounded from her seat. She had but just remembered something the Inspector had said—something scarcely noticed at the time amidst so many conflicting anxieties and emotions.
"We are trying to trace their parents, as several names and addresses were found in the possession of Brown, and you would probably in any case have been subpœnæd to give evidence at the trial."
"Great Heaven!" she thought, "so there is to be a trial."
The full meaning of the words burst suddenly upon her. It should all come out—the whole story. She saw herself in court,
