silence that followed someone entered the room with a light,
cat-like tread, and approached the window against which she sat. But so
overwhelmed was she for the moment that she was unaware of any presence
till Nap's voice spoke to her, and she started to find him close to her,
within reach of her hand.

She lifted her white face then, while mechanically she groped for the
letter. It had fallen to the ground. He picked it up.

"What is it?" he said, and she thought his voice sounded harsh. "You have
had bad news?"

She held out her hand for the letter. "No, it is good. I--am a little
tired, that's all."

"That is not all," he said, and she heard the dogged note in his
voice that she had come to know as the signal of indomitable
resolution. He sat down on the window seat close to her, still
keeping the letter in his hand.

She made a little hopeless gesture and sat silent, striving for
composure. She knew that during the seconds that followed, his eyes never
stirred from her face. It was his old trick of making her feel the
compulsion of his will. Often before she had resisted it. To-night she
was taken at a disadvantage. He had caught her unarmed. She was
powerless.

She turned her head at last and spoke. "You may read that letter," she
said.

The thin lips smiled contemptuously for an instant. "I have read it
already," he said.

She started slightly, meeting his eyes. "You have read it?"

"In your face," he told her coolly. "It contains news of the man you call
your husband. It is to say he is better--and--coming--home."

He spoke the last words as though he were actually reading them one by
one in her tragic eyes.

"It is an experiment," she whispered. "He wishes it himself, it seems,
and they think the change might prove beneficial. He is decidedly
better--marvellously so. And he has expressed the desire to see me. Of
course"--she faltered a little--"I should not be--alone with him. There
would be an attendant. But--but you mustn't think I am afraid. It wasn't
that. Only--only--I did not expect it. It has come rather suddenly. I am
not so easily upset as a rule."

She spoke hurriedly, almost as though she were pleading with him to
understand and to pardon her weakness.

But her words quivered into silence. Nap said nothing whatever. He
sat motionless, the letter still in his hand, his eyes unswervingly
fixed upon her,

That sphinx-like stare became unbearable at last. She gathered her
strength and