might go on to supper. It
was not the custom for the servants to wait up for her.

Benham went into the study that reduplicated his former rooms in Finacue
Street and sat down before the fire the butler lit for him. He sent the
man to bed, and fell into profound meditation.

It was nearly two o'clock when he heard the sound of her latchkey and
went out at once upon the landing.

The half-door stood open and Easton's car was outside. She stood in
the middle of the hall and relieved Easton of the gloves and fan he was
carrying.

"Good-night," she said, "I am so tired."

"My wonderful goddess," he said.

She yielded herself to his accustomed embrace, then started, stared, and
wrenched herself out of his arms.

Benham stood at the top of the stairs looking down upon them,
white-faced and inexpressive. Easton dropped back a pace. For a moment
no one moved nor spoke, and then very quietly Easton shut the half-door
and shut out the noises of the road.

For some seconds Benham regarded them, and as he did so his spirit
changed....

Everything he had thought of saying and doing vanished out of his mind.

He stuck his hands into his pockets and descended the staircase. When
he was five or six steps above them, he spoke. "Just sit down here," he
said, with a gesture of one hand, and sat down himself upon the stairs.
"DO sit down," he said with a sudden testiness as they continued
standing. "I know all about this affair. Do please sit down and let us
talk.... Everybody's gone to bed long ago."

"Cheetah!" she said. "Why have you come back like this?"

Then at his mute gesture she sat down at his feet.

"I wish you would sit down, Easton," he said in a voice of subdued
savagery.

"Why have you come back?" Sir Philip Easton found his voice to ask.

"SIT down," Benham spat, and Easton obeyed unwillingly.

"I came back," Benham went on, "to see to all this. Why else? I
don't--now I see you--feel very fierce about it. But it has distressed
me. You look changed, Amanda, and fagged. And your hair is untidy. It's
as if something had happened to you and made you a stranger.... You two
people are lovers. Very natural and simple, but I want to get out of it.
Yes, I want to get out of it. That wasn't quite my idea, but now I see
it is. It's queer, but on the whole I feel sorry for you. All of us,
poor humans--. There's reason to be sorry for all of us. We're full
of lusts and uneasiness and resentments that we haven't the w