reality delighted to recount her London experiences to
her poor tame sister-in-law. Alice, too, had been at moments introduced
to her husband's kitchen; she threw out vague hints of a wonderful
repast in preparation.

'Willis is going to buy me a house in Brighton,' she said, among other
things. 'I shall run down whenever I feel it would do me good. You've no
idea how kind he is.'

There was, in fact, an 'advancement clause' in Alice's deed of
settlement. If Mr. Rodman showed himself particularly anxious to
cultivate the friendship of Mr. Alfred Waltham, possibly one might look
for the explanation to the terms of that same document.

There came a Sunday morning. Preparations for departure on the morrow
were practically completed. The weather was delightful. Adela finished
breakfast in time to wander a little about the garden before it was the
hour for church; her husband and Rodman breakfasted with her, and went
to smoke in the library. Alice and 'Arry did not present themselves till
the church bells had ceased.

Adela was glad to be alone in the dusky pew. She was the first of
the congregation to arrive, and she sat, as always, with the curtains
enclosing her save in front. The bells ringing above the roof had a
soothing effect upon her, and gave strange turns to her thought. So had
their summoning rung out to generation after generation; so would it
ring long after she was buried and at rest. Where would her grave be?
She was going for the first time to a foreign country; perhaps death
might come to her there. Then she would lie for ever among strangers,
and her place be forgotten. Would it not be the fitting end of so sad
and short a life?

In the front of the pew was a cupboard; the upper portion, which
contained the service books, was closed with a long, narrow door,
opening downwards on horizontal hinges; the shelf on which the books
lay went back into darkness, being, perhaps, two feet broad. Below this
shelf was the door of the lower and much larger receptacle; it
slid longitudinally, and revealed a couple of buffets, kept here to
supplement the number in the pew when necessary. Adela had only once
opened the sliding door, and then merely to glance into the dark hollows
and close it again. Probably the buffets had lain undisturbed for years.

On entering the pew this morning she had as usual dropped the upper
door, and had laid her large church service open on the shelf, where
she could reach it as soon a