s to stick to his post and help out the bluff as a press
correspondent. Don't be afraid, Felicia. You shall have your David."

She seized his hand and kissed it.

"You have been so kind to me always, Sir Henry," she sighed. "I can't
tell you how thankful I am to think that you don't want David to go and
run these horrible risks."

"No fear of that, I promise you," he assured her once more. "David will
be busy enough pulling the strings another way."

The doctor entered the room and shook hands with Hunterleys. There was
no news, he declared, nothing to be done. The patient must continue in
his present condition for several more hours at least. The symptoms
were, in their way, favourable. Beyond that, nothing could be said.
Felicia and Hunterleys left the hospital together.

"I wonder," she began, as they turned out of the white gates, "whether
you would mind very much if I told you something?"

"Of course not!"

"Yesterday," she continued slowly, "I met Lady Hunterleys. You know, I
have seen her twice when I have been to your house to sing for your
guests. She recognised me, I feel sure, but she didn't seem to want to
see me. She looked surprised when I bowed. I worried about it at first
and then I wondered. You are so very, very secretive just now. Whatever
this affair may be in which you three are all concerned, you never open
your lips about it. Lady Hunterleys probably doesn't know that you have
had to come up to the villa at all hours of the night just to see
Sidney. You don't suppose that by any chance she imagined--that you came
to see me?"

Hunterleys was struck by the thought. He remembered several chance
remarks of his wife. He remembered, too, the coincidence of his recent
visits to the villa having prevented him in each case from acceding to
some request of Violet's.

"I am glad you've mentioned this, child," he said frankly. "Now I come
to think of it, my wife certainly did know that I came up to the villa
very late one night, and she seemed upset about it. Of course, she
hasn't the faintest idea about your brother."

"Well," Felicia declared, with a sigh of relief, "I felt that I had to
tell you. It sounded horribly conceited, in a way, but then she wouldn't
know that you came to see Sidney, or that I was engaged to David.
Misunderstandings do come about so easily, you know, sometimes."

"This one shall be put right, at any rate," he promised her. "Now, if
you will take my advice, you will go