l her "Mary"--if only he would begin, she would
soon find it quite easy to call him "Alick...."

Suddenly there came on his sightless face a slight change. He had heard
something which her duller ears had failed to hear.

"What's that?" he asked uneasily.

"It's only a motor-car coming round to the front door. I hope they will
send whoever it is away," the colour rushed into her face.

"Oh, surely Howse will do that to-day----"

And then she saw the man-servant come out of the house and advance
towards them. There was a salver in his hand, and on the salver a note.

"The gentleman who brought this is waiting, ma'am, to see you."

She took up the envelope and glanced down at it. Her new name looked so
odd in Dr. Haworth's familiar writing--it evoked a woman who had been so
very different from herself, and yet for whom she now felt a curious
kind of retrospective tenderness.

She opened the note with curiosity.

"DEAR MRS. GUTHRIE,

"The bearer of this, Mr. Reynolds of the Home Office, will
explain to you why we are anxious that you should come into
Witanbury for an hour this afternoon. I am sure Major Guthrie
would willingly spare you if he knew how very important and
how delicate is the business in question. Please tell him that
we will keep you as short a time as possible. In fact, it is
quite probable that you will be back within an hour.

"Very truly yours,

"EDMUND HAWORTH."

She looked down at the letter with feelings of surprise and of
annoyance. Uncaring of Howse's discreet presence, she read it aloud.
"It's very mysterious and queer, isn't it? But I'm afraid I shall have
to go."

"Yes, of course you will. It would have been better under the
circumstances for the Dean to have told you what they want to see you
about."

In the old days, Major Guthrie had never shared Mrs. Otway's admiration
for Dr. Haworth, and now he felt rather sharply disturbed. The Home
Office? The words bore a more ominous sound to him than they did,
fortunately, to her. Was it possible that she had been communicating, in
secret, with some of her German friends? He rose from the bench on which
they had been sitting: "Is the gentleman in the motor, Howse?"

"Yes, sir. He wouldn't come in."

"Go and tell him that we are coming at once."

And then, after a moment, he said quietly, "I'm coming, too."

"Oh, but----" she exclaimed.

"I don't choose to have my wife's presenc