e for children. He was quite willing. He had sent her
to Saxham, in fact. Of course, the Profession of Surgery had made such
huge strides that risk need not enter into consideration for a moment....
And heaps of her women friends did the same. And expense was absolutely no
object, and would not Dr. Saxham----

Saxham struck a bell that was upon his table, and rose up with his
piercing eyes upon her and crossed the room in two strides. He flung the
door wide. He bowed to her with cool, withering, ironical courtesy as he
stood waiting for her to depart.

She hesitated, laughed with the ring of hysteria, fluttered into speech.

"You are not, of course, aware of it, but I happen to be an old
schoolfellow of your wife's." Her pretty, inquisitive eyes went back to
the writing-table, where stood a photograph of Lynette, recently taken--an
exquisite, delicate, pearly-toned portrait in a heavy silver-gilt frame.
"We used to be great friends. Du Taine was my maiden name. Surely Mrs.
Saxham has spoken to you of Greta Du Taine? I left Gueldersdorp at the
beginning of the siege. Later, we went to Cape Town. I met my husband
there. He is Sir Philip Atherleigh, Baronet." She italicised the word. "He
was with his regiment, going to the Front. We were married almost
directly. It was a case of love at first sight. Now we are staying at our
town house in Werkeley Square. Mrs. Saxham must visit us--my husband is
dying to know her."

"I regret that the desire cannot be gratified, madam." The angry blood
darkened his face. His tone, even more plainly than his words, told her
that the boasted friendship was at an end.

Greta reddened too, and her turquoise-hued eyes dealt him a glance of
bitter hatred.

"I did not stay long at the Convent at Gueldersdorp. Nuns are good, simple
creatures, and easily imposed upon. And--mother did not wish me to be
educated with strays and foundlings--dressed up like young
ladies--actually allowed to mingle upon equal terms with them----"

It was Cornelius Agrippa, I think, who once materialised the Devil as an
empty purse. The necromancer should have evoked the Spirit of Evil in the
shape of a spiteful woman. Greta went on:

"--Such Society as there was, I should say. You were at Gueldersdorp
throughout the siege, and for some time before it, I think, Dr. Saxham?"

Two pairs of blue eyes met, the man's hard as shining stones, the woman's
dancing with malicious intention. Saxham stiffly bent his head. B