The Story of Ivy by Marie Belloc Lowndes

Instead of doing what he ought to have done -- that is, to have sought at once the best legal aid in his power -- Roger Gretorex made up his mind to go back to Sussex, if only for a few hours.

Ivy's words of agonised fear now found an echo in his own heart. His mother must hear the very few and simple facts concerning Jervis Lexton's death from himself.