of welcome. These would have seemed quite inadequate to
the occasion if his eyes which were fixed on her face, had not betrayed
the fact that he was not without feeling, though she little realized the
nature of that feeling or how her very life (for happiness is life) was
trembling in the balance under that indomitable will.

I who did know--or thought I did--cast him an imploring glance, and,
saying that I had some explanations to make, asked if Mrs. Adams might
not rest here while we had a few words apart.

He answered me with a strange look. Did he feel the revolt in my tone
and understand then as well as afterward what the nature of my
compliance had been? I shall never know. I only know that he stopped
fumbling with some small object on the table before him, and, bowing
with a sarcastic grace that made me for the first time in my intercourse
with him feel myself his inferior, even in size, led the way to a small
door I had failed to notice up to this moment.

"Your wife will find it more comfortable here," he observed, with slow
pauses in his speech that showed great, but repressed, excitement. And
he opened the door into what had the appearance of a small but elegant
sleeping-apartment. "What we have to say cannot take long. Mrs. Adams
will not find the wait tedious."

"No," she smiled, with a natural laugh, born, as I dare hope, of her
perfect happiness. Yet she could not but have considered the proceeding
strange, and my manner, as well as his, scarcely what might be expected
from a bridegroom introducing his bride to his only relative.

"I will call you--" I began, but the vision of her dimpled face above
the great cluster of roses she carried made me forget to complete my
sentence, and the door closed, and I found myself face to face with
Felix.

He was breathing easier, and his manner seemed more natural now that we
were alone, yet he did not speak, but cast a strange, if not inquiring,
glance about the room (the weirdest of apartments, as you all well
know), and seeming satisfied with what he saw, why I could not tell, led
the way up to the large table which from the first had appeared to exert
a sort of uncanny magnetism upon him, saying:

"Come further away. I need air, breathing place in this close room, and
so must you. Besides, why should she hear what we have to say? She will
know the worst soon enough. She seems a gentle-hearted woman."

"An angel!" I began, but he stopped me with an imperious