"What Harry says is very true," chimed in Ellis. "I think all danger is over."
"Thank God for that!" cried Janet, clasping her hands. "Oh, how terrible these past months have been!"
"You will have no more trouble if I can help it," said the doctor, taking her hand. "What I said when I believed you to be Mrs. Moxton, I say now; and I ask you to be my honoured wife."
Janet sobbed. "You forget! I have a shady past!"
"A noble past. You have been tested in the furnace of affliction, and have come out pure gold."
"My dearest, I know all you have done, and how good you have been. As my wife, I hope you will find that happiness which has been denied to you for so long. You love me, Janet, do you not?"
"Yes, I love you, because you believed in me when no one else did."
Harry laughed in a somewhat shamefaced manner. "Is that meant for me, Miss Gordon? If so, I recant my former errors. I think you are the noblest of women, and I congratulate Bob on getting such a wife."
"Hullo! Harry. I thought you did not want me to marry Janet."
"Now I do, because I know the truth. Bless you, my children, and let me be your best man."
"There is one thing to be said," observed Ellis, uneasily. "Janet cannot marry me here, where she is known as Mrs. Moxton. Mrs. Basket may make trouble, and I cannot afford to give up my practice--such as it is."
"Leave that to me," said Janet, nodding. "My sister Laura owes you everything, and when she gets her fortune she will give you enough money to buy a practice far away from Mrs. Basket and this horrid little place. I am sure I do not wish to live in this district after what I have undergone. When I leave Myrtle Villa, I leave Dukesfield for ever."
"But, Janet, I don't like taking money from Mrs. Moxton."
"Red money!" repeated Cass, struck by the phrase, "and what is red money?"
"Ah!" said Janet, smiling, "then there is something you don't know of which I am aware. Red money is a term given by gipsies to that which comes by a violent death. My sister inherits her fortune through the murder of her husband; therefore, according to Romany lore, it is red money. But if Robert will not take the money from Laura, she shall give it to me. She owes me something, I think."