o myself that I was the
victim of fancy, that I should see nothing further of this prodigious
apparition; that, in short, my brain had been overtaxed by recent
events, and I had suffered from delusions. Vain and conventional
self-deceptions! At the bottom of my soul lay always the secret and
profound conviction that I was doomed, cursed, caught in the toils of
a relentless foe who was armed with all the strange terrors of the
unknown; a foe whose onslaughts it was absolutely impossible for me to
parry.

As the hours passed a yearning to see Rosa, to be near her, came upon
me. I fought against it, fearing I know not what as the immediate
consequence. I wished to temporize, or, at any rate, to decide upon a
definite course of conduct before I saw her again. But towards evening
I felt that I should yield to the impulse to behold her. I said to
myself, as though I needed some excuse, that she would have a great
deal of trouble with the arrangements for Sir Cyril's funeral, and
that I ought to offer my assistance; that, indeed, I ought to have
offered my assistance early in the day.

I presented myself after dinner. She was dressed in black, and her
manner was nervous, flurried, ill at ease. We shook hands very
formally, and then could find nothing to say to each other. Had she,
with a woman's instinct, guessed, from that instant's view of the
thing in the chair last night, all that was involved for me in our
love? If not all, she had guessed most of it. She had guessed that the
powerful spirit of Lord Clarenceux was inimical, fatally inimical, to
me. None knew better than herself the terrible strength of his
jealousy. I wondered what were her thoughts, her secret desires.

At length she began to speak of commonplace matters.

"Guess who has called," she said, with a little smile.

"I give it up," I said, with a smile as artificial as her own.

"Mrs. Sullivan Smith. She and Sullivan Smith are on their way home
from Bayreuth; they are at the Hotel du Rhin. She wanted to know all
about what happened in the Rue Thiers, and to save trouble I told
her. She stayed a long time. There have been a lot of callers. I am
very tired. I--I expected you earlier. But you are not listening."

I was not. I was debating whether or not to show her Alresca's letter.
I decided to do so, and I handed it to her there and then.

"Read that," I murmured.

She read it in silence, and then looked at me. Her tender eyes were
filled with tears