evening was before him like a hateful
tableau. Hilditch's mocking words rang in his cars: "My death is the
one thing in the world which would make my wife happy." The Court scene,
with all its gloomy tragedy, rose before his eyes--only in the dock,
instead of Hilditch, he saw another!

CHAPTER XXIX

There were incidents connected with that luncheon which Francis always
remembered. In the first place, Sir Timothy was a great deal more silent
than usual. A certain vein of half-cynical, half-amusing comment upon
things and people of the moment, which seemed, whenever he cared to
exert himself, to flow from his lips without effort, had deserted him.
He sat where the rather brilliant light from the high windows fell upon
his face, and Francis wondered more than once whether there were not
some change there, perhaps some prescience of trouble to come, which had
subdued him and made him unusually thoughtful. Another slighter but more
amusing feature of the luncheon was the number of people who stopped
to shake hands with Sir Timothy and made more or less clumsy efforts to
obtain an invitation to his coming entertainment. Sir Timothy's reply
to these various hints was barely cordial. The most he ever promised was
that he would consult with his secretary and see if their numbers were
already full. Lady Cynthia, as a somewhat blatant but discomfited Peer
of the Realm took his awkward leave of them, laughed softly.

"Of course, I think they all deserve what they get," she declared. "I
never heard such brazen impudence in my life--from people who ought to
know better, too."

Lord Meadowson, a sporting peer, who was one of Sir Timothy's few
intimates, came over to the table. He paid his respects to the two
ladies and Francis, and turned a little eagerly to Sir Timothy.

"Well?" he asked.

Sir Timothy nodded.

"We shall be quite prepared for you," he said. "Better bring your
cheque-book."

"Capital!" the other exclaimed. "As I hadn't heard anything, I was
beginning to wonder whether you would be ready with your end of the
show."

"There will be no hitch so far as we are concerned," Sir Timothy assured
him.

"More mysteries?" Margaret enquired, as Meadowson departed with a smile
of satisfaction.

Her father shrugged his shoulders.

"Scarcely that," he replied. "It is a little wager between Lord
Meadowson and myself which is to be settled to-morrow."

Lady Torrington, a fussy little woman, her hostess of the n