did, she was shocked. For
Olga was gazing straight before her with eyes wide and glassy--the eyes
of the sleep-walker who stares upon visions of horror which no others
see.

As Daisy moved, she moved also, went to the window, stepped straight out
into the night. Dumbly Daisy watched her. She had obeyed her instinct in
speaking, but now she knew not what to say or do.

Slowly at length Olga turned. She came back into the room. The glassy
look had gone out of her eyes. She appeared quite normal. She went to
Daisy, and laid gentle hands upon her shoulders.

"You did quite right to tell me," she said. "It is something that I
certainly ought to know."

Her face was deathly, but she smiled bravely into Daisy's troubled eyes.

"My dear, my dear," Daisy said in distress, "I do pray that I haven't
done wrong."

"You haven't," Olga said. "It was dear of you to tell me, and I'm very
grateful."

She kissed Daisy very lovingly and let her go. There was nothing tragic
in her manner, only an unwonted aloofness that kept the elder woman from
attempting to pursue the subject.

The return of Noel a few minutes later was a relief to them both. He
came in full of animation and merriment, precipitating himself upon them
with a gaiety that overlooked all silences. As Daisy was wont to say,
Noel was the most useful person she knew for filling in tiresome gaps.
He did it instinctively, without so much as seeing them.

In his cheery company the rest of the evening slid lightly by. Olga
encouraged him to be frivolous. She seemed to enjoy his society more
than she had ever done before; and Noel was nothing loth to be
encouraged.

When the card-players joined them, they were busily engaged in drawing
up a programme for what Noel termed "the Bassett week," and so absorbed
were they that they did not so much as glance up till Nick came between
them and demanded to know what it was all about.

Max, cynically tolerant, looked on from afar; and Daisy, who had been
feeling somewhat conscience-stricken at his entrance, rapidly found
herself detesting him more heartily than ever. She was glad when Major
Hunt-Goring drifted to her side and engaged her in conversation, and she
more nearly resumed her old intimacy with him in consequence than she
had done before.

The party broke up late, as Olga, Noel, and Nick continued their
discussion until their elaborate schemes were complete. By that time Max
and his host had retired for a final smoke