.
Whenever she made a sidestep she would now be able to feel that she
was driven to it by an inner necessity, planted in her family by the
Immanent Will, or whatever it was that governed humanity. As she spoke
she looked at the man she had called Bobbie, who was Sir Robert Syng,
private secretary to a prominent minister, and when she stopped speaking
he said he had never been able to believe in free will, though he always
behaved as if he thought he possessed it.

Miss Van Tuyn thereupon remarked that as some people are born with
tempers and intellects and some without them, perhaps it was the same
with free will. She was quite positive she had a free will, but the
very first time she had seen Sir Robert she had had her doubts about his
having that precious possession. This sally, designed to break up the
general conversation and to fasten Sir Robert's attention on herself,
led to an animated discussion between her and Mrs. Ackroyde's "man." But
Mrs. Ackroyde, though her large dark eyes showed complete understanding
of the manoeuvre, did not seem to mind, and, turning her attention to
Craven, she began to speak about acting. Meanwhile Lady Sellingworth
went out into the corridor with Braybrooke to "get a little air."

While Mrs. Ackroyde talked Craven felt that she was thinking about him
with an enormously experienced mind. She had been married twice, and was
now a widow. No woman knew more about life and the world in a general
way than she did. Her complete but quiet self-possession, her rather
blunt good nature, and her perfect health, had carried her safely, and
as a rule successfully, through multifarious experiences and perhaps
through many dangers. It was impossible to conceive of her being ever
"knocked out" by any happening however untoward it might be. She was one
of the stalwarts of the "old guard." Craven certainly did not dislike
her. But now he felt almost afraid of her. For he knew her present
interest in him arose from suspicions about him and Lady Sellingworth
which were floating through her brain. She had heard something; had been
informed of something; someone had hinted; someone had told. How do such
things become suspected in a city like London? Craven could not imagine
how the "old guard" had come already to know of his new friendship with
Lady Sellingworth. But he was now quite sure that he had been talked
about, and that Mrs. Ackroyde was considering him, his temperament, his
character, his possi