to be listening to something a long way off. Through the open windows of
her softly shaded drawing-rooms, odourous with flowers, came the rippling
of water falling from a fountain in the conservatory, the lazy hum of a
mowing machine on the lawn, the distant tinkling of a hansom bell in the
Square. But these were not the sounds which for a moment had changed her
face.

"I myself," she murmured, "am an example!"

A woman who had risen to go sat down again.

"Do go on, Duchess!" she exclaimed. "Anything in the nature of a personal
confession is so fascinating, and you know you are such an enigma to all
of us."

"Am I?" she answered, smiling. "Then I am likely to remain so."

"A perfectly obvious person like myself," the woman remarked, "is always
fascinated by the unusual. But if you are really not going to give
yourself away, Duchess, I am afraid I must move on. One hates to leave
your beautifully cool rooms. Shall I see you to-night, I wonder, at
Esholt House?"

"Perhaps!"

There were still many people in the room. Some fresh arrivals occupied
his hostess's attention, and Borrowdean, with a resigned shrug of the
shoulders, prepared to depart. He had come, hoping for an opportunity to
be alone for a few minutes with the Duchess, and himself a skilful
tactician in such small matters, he could not but admire the way she had
kept him at arm's length. And then the opportunity for a master stroke
came. A servant sought him out with a card. A man of method, he seldom
left his rooms without instructions as to where he was to be found.

"The gentleman begged you to excuse his coming here, sir," the man
whispered, confidentially, "but he is returning to the country this
evening, and was anxious to see you. He is quite ready to wait your
convenience."

Borrowdean held the card in his hand, scrutinizing it with impassive
face. Was this a piece of unparalleled good fortune, or simply a trick of
the fates to tempt him on to catastrophe? With that wonderful swiftness
of thought which was part of his mental equipment he balanced the
chances--and took his risk.

"I should be glad," he said, looking the servant in the face, "if you
would show the gentleman up here as an ordinary visitor. I should like to
find you down stairs when I come out. You understand?"

"Perfectly, sir," the man answered, and withdrew.

Mannering had no idea whose house he was in. The address Borrowdean's
servant had given him had been simply 81, G